In the first 24 hours, the new Trump administration tapped critical U.S. attorneys’ offices to quickly appoint new acting leaders, signaling a break from past practices that reflect the importance of front-line prosecutors in plans to administration.
In three of the most important federal offices – two in New York and one in Washington – new acting leaders have been announced. Two of the picks are long-respected prosecutors; the third is a Trump loyalist who had pushed for the release of the defendants on January 6.
It’s part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to shake up the highest levels of government. At Justice Department headquarters, senior career officials from critical divisions have been reassigned.
The new acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan is Danielle Sassoon, best known for the successful 2023 prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud in his cryptocurrency business.
John Durham, a veteran federal prosecutor from Long Island, will lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. Mr. Durham is the son of John H. Durham, the former special counsel who investigated possible government misconduct in previous investigations of President Trump.
And in Washington, officials announced that Ed Martin, a conservative activist lawyer, would be in charge of the U.S. attorney’s office, which has overseen more than 1,500 prosecutions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Mr. Trump granted pardons in almost all of these cases on Monday. Mr. Martin served on the board of directors of a group that defended and raised funds for the Jan. 6 defendants. In his first official action in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he filed a motion to dismiss all Jan. 6 cases still pending.
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