Joe Biden announces nine nominations for federal prosecutor posts

US President Joe Biden appears to have yet to fill out the remaining unoccupied posts in his administration months following his inauguration in January. This week, the White House announced his slate of nominations for nine federal prosecutor posts.

The White House announced Tuesday that Biden had nominated nine lawyers to serve as federal prosecutors in the offices in Hawaii, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Colorado, Ohio, Vermont, and the US Virgin Islands. As with Biden’s previous nominations, some would be achieving historic first, such as the first Black female federal attorneys. The latest slate of nominations brings Biden’s total up to 25 candidates, whose positions have been filled by acting US attorneys.

The White House said that the nominees were “chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice.”

The candidates for federal prosecutors include Clare Connors, who was the attorney general for Hawaii since 2019, Sandra Hairston, who was the acting US attorney in North Carolina’s middle district since March, Zachary Cunha for Rhode Island, who is currently serving in the US attorney’s civil division, Michael Easley Jr. for the eastern district of North Carolina, Cole Finnegan for Colorado, and Nikolas Krest who is already a longtime federal prosecutor in the state of Vermont.

Another longtime federal prosecutor for North Carolina’s western district, Dena King, is being nominated to assume the US attorney role in the state. Kenneth Parker, another longtime federal prosecutor is nominated for US attorney for Ohio, and Delia L. Smith, who has served as prosecutor for the US Virgin Islands since 2005, is nominated for the federal prosecutor post.

Meanwhile, the White House announced that Biden had postponed his visit to Chicago to further promote the COVID-19 vaccination policy in order to focus on the two major infrastructure bills that make up the bulk of his agenda. This comes as the Democratic Party faces an internal conflict over the passage of both bills, with one group of Democrats threatening to vote against one bill if the other bill is not voted on.

“He will now remain at the White House tomorrow to continue working on advancing these two pieces of legislation to create jobs,” said an administration official.