(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has tapped one of his personal attorneys to take over as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to fill a vacancy in one of the Justice Department’s most high profile prosecutorial jobs.
Trump announced Saturday that he has recommended James M. McDonald, a partner at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, McDonald, to replace Jay Clayton. Trump last week nominated Clayton for the role of director of national intelligence.
McDonald, a former federal prosecutor, is a member of the legal team handling Trump’s appeal of felony convictions in New York related to hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. Last year, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of felony charges of falsifying business records in the New York City criminal trial. He is expected to appeal the verdict.
McDonald also served as a financial regulator during Trump’s first term and also worked in the White House counsel’s office under President George W. Bush’s administration.
“I am confident that Jamie will deliver strong results for our country,” Trump wrote on social media.
McDonald was also part of the legal team that represented Indian billionaire Gautam Adani when the Trump administration Justice Department dismissed fraud and conspiracy charges filed against the agency under the Biden administration.
Trump nominated Clayton last week to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation as national intelligence director last month. Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been serving as interim director of the spy agency.
While presidents traditionally nominate a new roster of federal prosecutors once they take over the White House, the posts are normally Senate-confirmed. The Trump administration has sought to keep U.S. attorneys in several districts in those jobs on a temporary basis amid a shortage of applicants. The White House says Democrats in the Senate have blocked key nominations.
The president’s picks for U.S. attorneys in New York have been controversial. In February, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled that interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York John Sarcone – who served as Trump’s campaign attorney – was in that role unlawfully.
The judge also barred Sarcone from heading an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James and quashed two subpoenas issued in the Justice Department’s probe into her handling of Trump’s civil fraud trial and a National Rifle Association investigation.
A panel of New York judges appointed former prosecutor Donald T. Kinsella to lead the office. The Justice Department subsequently fired him.
