Deputy Virginia AG overseeing elections resigns over Facebook posts calling rioters 'patriots' and promoting Trump's election lies

• A Virginia deputy attorney general resigned after old Facebook posts cheering Capitol rioters surfaced.
• Monique Miles stepped down after The Washington Post questioned the AG's office about the posts.

A Virginia deputy attorney general overseeing elections issues resigned on Thursday after a slew of posts from her Facebook account surfaced, showing her cheering Capitol rioters and falsely claiming that Donald Trump was the winner of the 2020 presidential election, according to a report.

Monique Miles, who was serving under Virginia's new Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, stepped down from her position after The Washington Post questioned the AG's office about the purported Facebook posts, the news outlet reported.

The attorney general's office told The Washington Post it had been unaware of the Facebook posts praising the January 6, 2021, insurrectionists before the newspaper shared screenshots it obtained of the posts and shared them with the office.

"This information was unknown to the Office of the Attorney General prior to this morning," Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Miyares, told The Washington Post. "Ms. Miles has resigned from her position at the Office of the Attorney General."

The spokeswoman added: "The Attorney General has been very clear — Joe Biden won the election and he has condemned the January 6th attacks."

LaCivita did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Thursday.

On the day of the deadly US Capitol insurrection, a post shared on Miles' Facebook said that the attack was carried out by "patriots," according to the Post.

"News Flash: Patriots have stormed the Capitol. No surprise. The deep state has awoken the sleeping giant," Miles wrote, the Post reported, citing a screenshot. "Patriots are not taking this lying down. We are awake, ready and will fight for our rights by any means necessary."

Miles told the Post in an email that she was facing a "character assassination to stir up controversy" over the unearthed posts.

"Some liberals have their daggers out for black conservative females," she added.

"The posts were made at a time when the news was still developing re: the facts around the election, the court cases, the Rally on the Ellipse and what happened at the capitol," Miles said in the email, the Post reported. "That was before all the audits occurred. These posts have been taken out of context."