Trump to nominate new top prosecutor for Washington after interim US attorney’s troubled stint

Donald Trump announced on Monday that he plans to nominate a new top prosecutor to oversee the US attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, which handles local and federal cases, including several high-profile prosecutions of the president’s allies.

Upon confirmation by the Senate, Justin Herdman, the US attorney in Cleveland, would take the position now filled by Timothy Shea, who came to the office in February. The selection of Mr Herdman comes as the office has been pummelled by political controversies surrounding the cases of Trump confidant Roger Stone and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Mr Shea was named DC’s interim US attorney by Attorney General William Barr effective 3 February.

Within weeks, Mr Shea came under fire for sidelining the prosecutors in his office and aligning with Justice Department leaders who intervened to soften the sentencing recommendation for Stone, who was convicted by a federal jury of obstructing a House investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference. Mr Shea was criticised again earlier this month when he filed a motion to implement Mr Barr’s decision to dismiss Mr Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador before Mr Trump’s inauguration.

Others said the actions, combined with Mr Barr’s filling of several other top supervisory positions in the office, left them uneasy and worried that the White House was interfering in prosecutions. The selection of Mr Herdman portends another shake-up at a time when court operations are limited because of the pandemic and most prosecutors are working from their homes.

The US attorney’s office in Washington has 300 lawyers and is the largest in the country. It is unique in that prosecutors who work out of the office handle federal and local cases, including national security and political corruption cases as well as homicide, drug and weapons cases. The office also last year took over cases handed off after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In a statement, Mr Barr thanked Mr Shea and praised Mr Herdman, saying: “This nomination is a reflection [of] his sharp intellect, sound judgment, and dedication to the mission of the Department of Justice. Justin has proven himself to be a fair prosecutor, capable litigator, and excellent manager.”

Mr Shea will become the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, an administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. He will be succeeded as of Tuesday on an acting basis by Michael Sherwin, whom Barr had picked to serve as Shea’s No. 2, and who can remain through mid-December without need of Senate approval.

Mr Herdman is a former Navy and active Air Force reserve officer and judge advocate. He holds a law degree from Harvard University, a bachelor’s from Ohio University and a master’s from the University of Glasgow.

From 2006 through 2013 as a prosecutor in northern Ohio, Mr Herdman handled criminal cases in the office’s terrorism squad, including the prosecution of five activists who plotted to blow up the Ohio 82 bridge spanning the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 2012.

Though he was based in Cleveland, Mr Barr made him vice-chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which meant he spent more time than others considering broader Justice Department goals and interacting with Justice Department leadership in DC.

Before Mr Trump tapped him as US attorney in northern Ohio, Mr Herdman worked as a partner at Jones Day, a Cleveland-based law firm. He also was an assistant district attorney in New York City for several years.

Colleagues praised Mr Herdman’s leadership, including First Assistant US Attorney of Maryland Jon Lenzner, who worked with Mr Herdman in New York in 2004 and 2005.

“Since his time in the Manhattan DA’s Office, where I first met and worked with Justin, he has been an exemplary public servant and a tough, effective litigator,” Mr Lenzner said in an email. “The District of Columbia is getting a good prosecutor and a dynamic leader.”

The Ohio-born Mr Herdman was confirmed by the Senate to serve as US attorney for Cleveland in 2017 after senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, recommended his nomination to Mr Trump.

Six weeks after being named US attorney in Ohio, Mr Herdman disbanded that office’s civil rights unit – which also handled sex trafficking, labour trafficking and excessive force by police claims – and established a new division that focused on violent crime by working with federal officials to target gangs and build stronger conspiracy cases, according to stories in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Mr Herdman’s priorities, he told prosecutors, were national security, narcotics and violent crime. Cases that had been handled by the civil rights unit had been divided among other units within the office.

Mr Herdman must still be confirmed by the Senate for the DC position, the administration official said, making it unclear when he will arrive.

Before the pandemic struck locally, Mr Shea held meetings with neighbourhood groups and city leaders. In one with leaders in the city’s LGBT+ community, he assured attendees he would focus on hate-crime prosecutions, said attendee Kent Boese, a member of the Rainbow Caucus.

“Our concern was how long are you going to be here,” Mr Boese said.

Mr Boese said Mr Shea assured the group he had no intention to leave. But Mr Shea also told them such a decision ultimately was not up to him.

Mr Shea’s interim appointment was scheduled to expire on 2 June if he were not appointed by Washington’s federal district court.

The office has seen unusual changes in leadership in the past five months. Jessie Liu served as US attorney for DC from September 2017 through January 2020. She resigned to take a top job with the Treasury Department, but that nomination was revoked.

The Washington Post