Trump nominates first group of U.S. attorney replacements; some have BigLaw connections
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump has announced “a first wave” of U.S. attorney nominees who share his vision for “making America safe again,” according to a White House release on Monday.
The eight nominees reflect the difficulty of getting “blue-slip” approval from Democratic home state senators, Politico reports. Six of the nominees are from states with two Republican senators, and a seventh would serve as U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., which isn’t covered by the blue-slip process.
The only nominee who received the recommendation of Democratic senators was Justin Herdman, a white-collar defense partner at Jones Day. Herdman, a former assistant U.S. attorney, is nominated to be U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Two other nominees also have BigLaw connections. Jessie Liu, the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Treasury Department, is a previous partner at Morrison & Foerster and Jenner & Block. She is nominated to be U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
The other is Jay Town of Alabama, is a former associate at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter. Currently a prosecutor in a county district attorney’s office, he is nominated to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
Trump also nominated Utah’s interim U.S. Attorney, John Huber, who was first appointed to the post in 2015. Huber was among the 46 U.S. attorneys asked to resign on March 10, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Huber as interim U.S. attorney several days later, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
The full list of nominees is here. The New York Times has coverage here.
