Justin E. Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, is slated to replace interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea, the White House announced Monday. Photo courtesy of the Northern District of Ohio
May 18 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Monday nominated an Ohio U.S. attorney to be the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., replacing a controversial interim prosecutor who was a protege of U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
Justin E. Herdman, 44, U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, has been chosen to replace Timothy Shea, an interim U.S. attorney in D.C., who will be moved to helm the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a Trump administration official told cleveland.com.
The U.S. Senate will need to confirm Herdman's nomination. He was confirmed by the Senate in 2017 for the Ohio post.
During his term in Cleveland, Herdman was in charge of the 2019 prosecution of a threatened terrorist attack by a Maple Heights, Ohio, man who plotted to blow up a 4th of July parade and conspired with undercover FBI officers whom he thought were al-Qaeda agents.
Shea, a former aide of Barr's during the first Bush administration, was appointed for 120 days in January as interim U.S. attorney in D.C.
Shea caused controversy when he moved forward with a reduction in the Department of Justice's sentencing of Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone, which caused other prosecutors to quit in protest. He was also in charge of a DOJ move to dismiss the case against former national Security Advisor Michael Flynn in early May.
Both cases drew the ire of former federal prosecutors and members of the FBI, who claimed in a letter last week that Barr was using the Department of Justice "as a tool to further President Trump's personal and political interests."
Herdman was formerly a partner at Jones Day in Cleveland and has served as assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland and assistant district attorney in New York City, a statement from the White House said.
