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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Joe Biden is nominating eight new leaders for U.S. attorney positions across the country, including for both the Southern and Northern Districts of Indiana.
The nominees include Zachary Myers, who specializes in national security and cyber matters as a federal prosecutor and who the White House says would be the first Black U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Indiana; and Clifford Johnson, who would be the first Black lawyer to lead the Northern District of Indiana after spending nearly 35 years in that office.
Myers also is the son of Dr. Woody Myers, a former Indiana health commissioner and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2020.
The nominees announced by the White House on Monday come as the Justice Department is continuing to round out its leadership team under Attorney General Merrick Garland, who traveled to Chicago last week to announce an initiative to crack down on gun trafficking corridors.
The Justice Department’s 93 U.S. attorneys, who are responsible for federal criminal prosecutions in their respective districts, are likely to be central to efforts to combat violent crime.
If confirmed by the Senate, the nominees would run offices in the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Washington state. Most would be historic firsts, including the first Black or female attorneys to lead their districts, the Biden administration said.
The eight were “chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” according to the White House.
The lawyers represent the first batch of U.S. attorney nominees advanced by the Biden White House, which is still working to fill key Justice Department posts six months into the administration. The White House last week announced the nomination of a lawyer to run its antitrust division but withdrew its nominee for the civil division head. No nominee has been announced for the key solicitor general role.
The Southern District of Indiana includes the Indianapolis area, which has been a home base for Myers.
From 2008 through 2011, Myers was an attorney at the Indianapolis law firm then known as Baker & Daniels. From 2011 through 2014, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
Since 2018, he has worked in the District of Maryland’s National Security and Cybercrime Section, serving as cybercrime counsel for the District.
Johnson served as an assistant U.S. attorney for yhe Northern District of Indiana from 1986 until 2020. He held numerous positions during his tenure, including as the first assistant U.S. attorney from 2010 to 2020, and as the acting U.S. Attorney for several months in 2017.
Also among the nominees announced Monday is Matthew Graves, a former fraud and public corruption prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia who is being tapped to run that office at a time when it is consumed by hundreds of cases arising from the Capitol riot.
The Trump administration appointee who held the job during the riot, Michael Sherwin, later left the Justice Department. The position has been held on an acting basis by Channing Phillips, who served in the same role during the Obama administration.
Rachael Rollins, the district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, would be the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney in that state. Erek Barron, a former federal prosecutor and policy advisor to Biden and a current state lawmaker, would be the first Black U.S. attorney in the District of Maryland, the White House said.
Justice Department environmental lawyer Vanessa Waldref would be the first woman to run the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Washington. And Nicholas Brown, who has been a federal prosecutor and general counsel to the governor, would be the first Black lawyer to run the Western District of Washington, which encompasses Seattle.
The Justice Department disclosed in February that it was seeking the resignation of most U.S. attorneys appointed during President Donald Trump’s administration, though it did leave in place David Weiss, the top federal prosecutor in Delaware, where law enforcement officials have been conducting a criminal tax investigation involving Biden’s son, Hunter.
U.S. attorneys serve at the president’s pleasure and are routinely nominated with a recommendation from a home-state senator. For instance, Trini Ross, a former federal prosecutor who is being nominated as U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York in Buffalo, was recommended for the job by the state’s senior senator, Charles Schumer.
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Quote: The eight were “chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” according to the White House.
I call BS. In today’s uber-woke Democrat party, they were primarily chosen due to their skin pigmentation. If they had been equally-qualified white male Republicans, there’s not an ice cube’s chance in hell they would have secured those positions…which is unfortunate in so many ways for all of us. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is rolling over in his grave; the very antithesis of his dream is being played out so obviously and so dramatically.
No, Bob P., these talented and dedicated people are given the opportunities that they have earned instead of being passed over for politically connected white men who otherwise have little to no experience in the Justice Department. If you actually read the article instead of quoting only what seems to irritate you, then you would see that nearly every candidate mentioned in the article has substantial DOJ experience.
From 2008 through 2011, Myers was an attorney at the Indianapolis law firm then known as Baker & Daniels. From 2011 through 2014, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
Since 2018, he has worked in the District of Maryland’s National Security and Cybercrime Section, serving as cybercrime counsel for the District.
Johnson served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana from 1986 until 2020. He held numerous positions during his tenure, including as the first assistant U.S. attorney from 2010 to 2020, and as the acting U.S. Attorney for several months in 2017.Sounclikepretty good credentials to me.
Bob P must be incredibly wise and wealthy since he is able to peer into others brains and know the real reason why people act. A disappointed white racist, is more likely. Experience counts Bob, and all have experience. Check their resumes and stop talking like the Biggest Fool to Ever Enter the White House, who only asked for blind loyalty. Competence, experience, integrity, were not required by the “former guy.”