WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will appoint one of his personal lawyers to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, filling a pending vacancy after Trump tapped the man currently in the job to be director of national intelligence.
James M. McDonald, a former federal prosecutor in the office he had been picked to run, served as a financial regulator during Trump's first term and worked in the White House counsel's office in President George W. Bush's administration.
A partner at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, McDonald is part of the legal team handling Trump's pending appeal of felony convictions in New York related to hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels as the Republican ran for president in 2016.
Trump said Saturday he would name McDonald to the role of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most influential positions in the Justice Department. He would replace Jay Clayton, whom Trump put forward this week as his pick for the director of national intelligence.
McDonald's perch as U.S. attorney would give him oversight of arguably the most prestigious of the Justice Department's prosecution offices, with a vast portfolio ranging from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.