Buta Biberaj

Buta Biberaj

Overview

* Was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney of Loudoun County, Virginia in 2019
* Received more than $860,000 in campaign support from George Soros’ Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee
* Member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, which is influenced by Black Lives Matter.


Buta Biberaj was born on June 25, 1964 in the European country of Montenegro. The daughter of Albanian parents, she moved with her family to the Bronx, New York in 1967. Biberaj initially attended Fordham University from 1982-1984, but transferred during her sophomore year to George Mason University, where she earned a B.S. degree in Education in 1987. That same year, she began working as an elementary school teacher at Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools.

After three years as an educator, Biberaj left her teaching job and enrolled in 1990 at the George Mason School of Law, where she went on to receive her J.D. degree in 1993. She then practiced primarily as a defense attorney in Leesburg, Virginia, the county seat of Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County.

From the start of her legal career, Biberaj viewed former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a major influence and role model.

Reflecting on the early years of her career as a litigator, Biberaj recalls what she describes as a multitude of microaggressions that were aimed at her because she was a woman. On one occasion, she recounts, she was walking with a male attorney who asked her where her law office was, and she pointed to a nearby building and stated that her firm had office space in the penthouse. “You mean the henhouse?” the male attorney replied.

Since 1995, Biberaj has been authorized to practice law in the U.S. Supreme Court and in the states of Maryland, New York, and Virginia. She worked in private practice as a partner at her own Loudoun County-based Biberaj Snow & Sinclair, PC (Professional Corporation) from 1993-2019; as a Senior Public Defender at Loudoun County’s Office of the Public Defender from 2000-2002; and as a Substitute Judge for Virginia’s 20th Judicial District from 2006 to 2017.

In May 2019, Biberaj secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney (C.A.) of Loudoun County, a place that: (a) is among the most affluent counties in the United States, and (b) has shifted from a Republican stronghold to a Democratic one in recent decades.

Over the course of the 2019 election cycle, the leftist multibillionaire George Soros contributed more than $860,000 in cash, services, and supplies to Biberaj’s C.A. campaign through his Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee — one of a number of super PACs that Soros had recently created in order to promote the campaigns of “progressive” prosecutors running for office throughout the country.

With just days remaining before the November 2019 general election for Loudoun County C.A., Republican State Senator Dick Black wrote an online piece denouncing Biberaj’s candidacy — describing her as “a criminal lawyer who defends rapists and child molesters in her practice.” Black cited one particular incident where Biberaj had defended a man who was ultimately convicted of raping and attacking a female co-worker. After the trial, Black wrote, Biberaj was angry because the victim and the then-prosecutor watched the convicted man being handcuffed and escorted to prison. “Are you going to stand and watch this?” Biberaj asked the prosecutor. When the prosecutor answered “yes,” Biberaj replied “F–ck you!”

In the general election, Biberaj defeated Republican incumbent Nicole Wittmann by a slight margin of 51% to Wittmann’s 49%. Basking in the glow of her victory, Biberaj downplayed the significance of Soros’ enormous contributions to her campaign, which included more than $337,000 in donations that were made between October 1 and October 24 as the race headed into its home stretch. “What they’re [the Soros donations are] about,” she said, “is making sure that we have a voice in the community so that we are able to go ahead and make some of these change that I was promoting and I was promising very early on…. Justice and Public Safety PAC is not coming in here trying to dictate what we do.”

Biberaj also received significant campaign contributions from her own family members and acquaintances. For example, her brother Bob Biberaj — president of the Manassas, Virginia-based A-Advantage Heating and Air Conditioning Company — gave $1,000 while an additional $10,000 came from the company itself. Another Biberaj brother, New York City real-estate mogul Hasan Biberaj, donated $25,000 to his sister’s campaign.

Biberaj officially took office as C.A. of Loudoun County in January 2020. She has described her prosecutorial philosophy as one that is based upon her preference for “doing something smartly” – e.g., seeking alternatives to traditional prison sentences – “rather than just doing things the old way.” For example, when a homeless local veteran with mental illness faced multiple grand larceny charges in February 2020, Biberaj displayed a greater preoccupation with restoring his Veteran Affairs benefits, than with pursuing his conviction. Her “varied lens” approach takes pains to consider a variety of factors when handling cases like this, such as the many thousands of taxpayer dollars that would be required to hold any given convict in prison. Vis-à-vis the most recent offense committed by the aforementioned homeless veteran, Biberaj said: “It’s a crime and it’s against the community, but if the harm we’re impacting upon him is greater to him and the community, then we really haven’t done justice.”

In November 2020, as the deadly COVID-19 pandemic was in high gear, Biberaj charged Raymond Deskins, a 61-year-old supporter of President Trump, with assault after he deliberately violated local COVID-19 face-masking policies and intentionally exhaled on two women, Patricia Razeghi and Kathy Beynette, who were participating in an anti-Trump demonstration. At the start of Deskins’ trial for this misdemeanor, both Razeghi and Beynette were informed that, as the victims, they had a right to unilaterally propose, to the prosecutor, suggestions for a settlement that would satisfy them. Choosing to exercise that option, the women asked that Deskins, as part of his punishment, be required to donate $3,000 to the scholarship fund of the NAACP‘s Loudoun Chapter — a chapter for which Biberaj had previously served as an executive. On February 17, 2021, Biberaj met with Charles King, the attorney for Mr. Deskins, and drew up a resolution that included not only the $3,000 donation, but also a two-year protective order prohibiting Deskins from having any contact with either of the plaintiffs.

Biberaj today is a member of the radical Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice (VPPJ). Influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement, the group consists of at least 12 elected Virginia prosecutors, one of whom is Fairfax County C.A. Steve Descano. On March 8, 2021, VPPJ issued a letter to the members of Virginia’s state legislature, articulating the organization’s perspectives on how the state of Virginia could achieve “a more fair and equitable criminal justice system”:

  • Abolition of the death penalty: “The death penalty is unjust, racially biased, and ineffective at deterring crime. We are proud that Virginia will now be the first former Confederate state to abandon this archaic practice.”
  • Expungement of criminal records for formerly system-involved community members: “Too often, a persistent criminal record prevented Virginians who had interacted with the criminal justice system from living healthy, full, and productive lives long after they had proven to no longer pose a safety risk, unnecessarily fueling recidivism. Thankfully, due to the expungement reforms passed in the most recent legislative session, the Commonwealth will now afford those with criminal records opportunities to reclaim their lives and fully reintegrate into society.”
  • Ending the “three strikes” felony enhancement for petit larceny offenses: “The collateral consequences associated with felonies far exceed those of misdemeanors. Too many Virginians were senselessly saddled with these collateral consequences for nonviolent property crimes when a past misdemeanor larceny offense triggered a subsequent such offense to be transformed into a felony. This mindlessly punitive law fueled mass incarceration and furthered recidivism. Our communities will be safer and our justice system more equitable now that the General Assembly has done away with it.”
  • Ending mandatory minimum sentences: “[M]andatory minimums prevent judges from taking an individualized, holistic approach to each sentence based on the specific circumstances of a given case. They lead to the irrationally lengthy prison sentences that fuel mass incarceration while exacerbating the racial and socioeconomic inequities that have come to characterize our criminal justice system. Ending mandatory minimums will make our communities safer and stem the tide of mass incarceration. We are encouraged that majorities of both chambers recognized the need for action on this front and hope that this consensus serves as a foundation for a full repeal of all mandatory minimums when the General Assembly reconvenes.”
  • Ending cash bail: “Cash bail leads to a two-tiered justice system, one for the rich and one for everyone else. Those who sit behind bars while awaiting trial – disproportionately Virginians of color — are exposed to significant collateral consequences, like the loss of a job or even custody of their children. If someone poses a significant safety or flight risk, no amount of money will change that, and that person should be held pretrial. Otherwise, we should employ a strong presumption in favor of pre-trial release and not put a price on Virginians’ freedom. The General Assembly’s passage of legislation mandating the collection of data on pretrial detention reflects a recognition that this system is flawed. We urge you and your colleagues to take the next step in the coming legislative session and end cash bail.”

In March 2021, Biberaj was a member of a private Facebook group named “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” (ARPLC). Consisting of more than 600 parents, school staffers, and elected officials, this group compiled a blacklist of local parents who were opposed to the promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to children in the Loudoun County School District. Various individual members of ARPLC posted messages denouncing such parents. One ARPLC member in particular disseminated an email asking fellow members to: (a) “gather information (community mailing lists, list of folks who are in charge of the anti-CRT movement, lists of local lawmakers/folks in charge)”; (b) “infiltrate (create fake online profiles and join these groups to collect and communicate information, hackers who can either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages)”; (c) “spread information (expose these people publicly, create online petitions, create counter-mailings); and (d) “find a way to gather donations for these efforts.” Another noteworthy activist was ARPLC administrator Jamie Ann Neidig-Wheaton, who tried to target the children of an anti-CRT parent: “Anyone else with the racist TikTok’s from you know who’s [sic] kids please PM [Private Message] me. Especially more with the N-word.” Yet another ARPLC member, angered by parental opposition to CRT, posted a comment about the need to “fight this s—t together,” to which Biberaj replied: “[E]xactly. You are where we need you!”

In October 2021, reports emerged about how Biberaj was seeking to impose a jail sentence on Scott Smith, the father of a local high-school girl who — as a consequence of the Loudoun County School Board’s “gender-fluid” policy permitting students to use whichever bathroom they deemed consistent with their “gender identity” – had been raped in a girls’ bathroom five months earlier by a 15-year-old boy who identified as a “transgender female.” At a June 22, 2021 meeting of the School Board, where the Board members proudly reaffirmed the nobility of their “gender-fluid” policy, Scott Smith displayed outrage and fury over the Board’s coverup of not just the assault against his daughter, but of similar in-school assaults against other local girls in recent years. Because of his outburst at the School Board meeting, Mr. Smith was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. Biberaj — though known for her general opposition to incarceration and harsh punishment — decided not only to take the highly unusual step of personally prosecuting the case herself, but also to seek prison time for Mr. Smith. In an appearance on the Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Smith claimed that Biberaj had “asked for 10 days in jail per charge, eight suspended per charge, $2,500 fine per charge, anger management, [and] probation…. [The judge] found me guilty on both charges. I got 10 days in jail. Suspended upon one year of good behavior.” Smith’s attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, told the press that it was “completely unheard of for the prosecutor to handle a misdemeanor.” “It is incredibly unusual for a disorderly conduct case to even go forward,” she said. “The idea that they would actually be seeking jail time, I’d guess in my 15 years the number of times I’ve seen that happen would be zero.”

Meanwhile, the boy who raped Mr. Smith’s daughter and faced charges that included forcible sodomy, was required only to wear an ankle monitor and transfer to a different school — where he was subsequently accused of committing a similar sexual assault against another student. Biberaj, however, defended her decision to be lenient with the rapist, stating: “We believed based on the facts that he had no history of having done this prior to this offense [against Mr. Smith’s daughter] that was alleged.” That lack of a prior record had led Biberaj to deem it unlikely that the perpetrator would re-offend.

In the final weeks before the November 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, the story of Scott Smith, his daughter, and the Loudoun County School Board captured national attention and created greater awareness regarding the fact that American schoolchildren were being indoctrinated to accept not only transgender ideology, but also the tenets of Critical Race Theory. These issues were major determining factors that contributed to Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia Governor’s race over Biberaj ally and former Democratic Governor, Terry McAuliffe. (Governor Younkin later pardoned Smith in September 2023. Shortly bafter the pardon, Smith told “America Reports” co-host John Roberts on Fox News: “She [Biberaj] is one of the most evil people I ever met. Unfortunately, I had to deal with her face to face with the prosecution of the sexual predator of my daughter. She needs – we need to vote her out.”)

In February 2022, it was reported that Biberaj’s office had hired a registered male sex offender as a paralegal in March 2021. The man, who as a paralegal would have had unfettered access to the C.A. office’s closed case files, was hired despite having previously served five years in prison for a child pornography conviction. He was fired a few days after his hiring, however, when his criminal record came to light.

In June 2022, Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James Plowman, Biberaj’s predecessor as the county’s C.A., issued an order removing Biberaj and her entire office from a case involving 20-year-old Kevin Enrique Valle of Oxon Hill, Maryland. Valle had been arrested on five separate warrants — three misdemeanors for destruction of property and false identification, and two felonies for burglary. Specifically, Plowman was troubled by the fact that Biberaj and her legal team, in an effort to secure a plea deal for Valle, downplayed and even omitted vital facts from the record of crimes he had previously committed in other jurisdictions. The plea agreement was written by Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Michele Burton, who claimed that Valle’s prior crimes had taken place over the course of just a few hours. But Plowman, characterizing that claim as “entirely inaccurate” and accusing the prosecutor’s office of “an overt misrepresentation by omission,” stated that Valle had carried out “a possible 12-burglary crime spree spanning four counties over ten days.” “The Commonwealth is deliberately misleading the Court, and the public, in an effort to ‘sell’ the plea agreement for some reason that has yet to be explained,” Plowman wrote. “Biberaj and the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is hereby REMOVED AND DISQUALIFIED from further prosecution as counsel of record in this matter.” In place of Biberaj, Plowman appointed the Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office to prosecute the case against Valle.

After Plowman had removed Biberaj and her office from the case, Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC) filed a bar complaint against Biberaj calling for “a formal investigation and appropriate sanctions, which could include disbarment – preventing her from practicing law.” “Ms. Biberaj’s conduct is completely unbecoming of both a prosecutor and an officer of the Court,” said VSC president Sean Kennedy in a June 16, 2022 press release. “Judge Plowman’s order is a damning indictment of the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s ethics and her low regard for the integrity of the justice system.” “We hope that the Virginia Bar recognizes the severity of this misconduct and Buta Biberaj is disbarred and removed from office immediately,” Kennedy added.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, likewise condemned Biberaj, characterizing her as part of a “criminal-first, victim-last” class of prosecutors who “don’t listen to victims” and “care more about criminals [while] our communities are getting less safe.”

On June 19, 2022, Breitbart.com reported: “Biberaj is also light on prosecutions, generally. Loudoun County data shows criminal indictments have fallen 67 percent since she took office, going from 681 in 2019 to 225 in 2021.”

On the morning of November 8, 2023, Republican candidate Bob Anderson claimed that he had defeated Biberaj in the previous day’s election for Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney. According to the Virginia Department of Elections, Anderson’s margin of victory was 1,021 votes, or 0.76%.

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