Biden Crosses Midpoint of U.S. Attorney Picks by Tapping Five

The White House announced five new chief federal prosecutors Friday, including nominees to head the U.S. Attorney’s offices based in Philadelphia and Sacramento.

President Joe Biden’s package of U.S. attorney choices mostly reflected promotions of existing public officials, such as Jacqueline Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where she’s currently a line prosecutor, and Phillip Talbert for the Eastern District of California, where he’s already the attorney general-appointed U.S. attorney.

Planned U.S. attorney nominations also include Joshua Hurwit, an assistant U.S. attorney in Idaho, to serve as his office’s top prosecutor, Rachelle Crowe, an Illinois state senator, for the Southern District of Illinois, and Gerard Karam, a personal injury lawyer and partner at Mazzoni Karam Petorak & Valvano, for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The Biden administration has now tapped 48 U.S. attorney nominees, just more than half of the 93 overall chief federal prosecutors. The five lawyers were the first slate of federal prosecutor nominees Biden has announced in nearly three months.

Romero, who would lead the Philadelphia office if confirmed by the Senate, has spent more than 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District, after previously serving as a special counsel to the U.S. Mint and a trial attorney at the Justice Department’s Commercial Litigation Branch.

Talbert has spent decades in various DOJ legal roles in Sacramento and at the Criminal Division in Washington, D.C.

The timing of their confirmations remains unclear. Although U.S. attorney appointees traditionally are expedited through the Senate with bipartisan approval, recent Biden picks have faced delays due to a block placed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on all DOJ nominees over his unrelated concerns about Black Lives Matter litigation in Oregon.