When leaders of all 93 US attorneys’ offices met for their weekly video chat last month, the 33-year-old Justice Department aide who presided had a blunt message.
President Donald Trump is their “chief client” and anyone uncomfortable with advancing his administration’s directives must step aside for willing replacements, Aakash Singh warned the US attorneys and their criminal heads, said three people briefed on the meeting.
Participants were taken aback by Singh’s comments, which some interpreted as a clear reference to the Minneapolis prosecutors resigning that week after DOJ’s orders to investigate protesters and state Democrats. Singh had closely coordinated those efforts, said two people with knowledge of his role.
As an associate deputy attorney general, Singh has positioned himself as the Trump Justice Department’s brashest enforcer when it comes to clamping down on US attorneys’ autonomy.
Singh is both in your face and more affable than other Trump appointees, drawing on his time as a gang prosecutor to relate to those in the field and navigate one of the toughest jobs in the building. He’s brought an unprecedented move-fast-and-break-things approach to steering contentious cases that have drawn rebukes from judges and juries and alarmed top prosecutors.
Singh, who served five years as an assistant US attorney, relishes telling chief federal prosecutors to get in line with Trump’s agenda and prosecute top administration targets such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, James Comey, and Don Lemon.
It’s won him fans in Trump’s orbit, while exasperating those in US attorneys’ offices on the receiving end of his dictates and data requests that have them scrambling late into the night, Bloomberg Law found in interviews with more than two dozen lawyers. Most spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation or because they’re not authorized to speak with the press.
“You cannot micromanage US attorneys’ offices from Washington—not in the long run—and I’ve never found managing by fear to be very effective in the long run either,” said Mark Calloway, a former US attorney in Charlotte who also directed DOJ’s Executive Office for US Attorneys. “There has to be a degree of cooperation.”
Singh’s granular oversight of US attorneys’ offices operations angered more experienced career supervisors, several of whom said they dismissed him as an out-of-his-depth intermediary. Other office leaders said they appreciated that Singh was available around the clock and advocated for their interests at Main Justice.
Lately, Singh’s influence and autonomy are increasing, as he’s filled the void left by the departure of his direct boss, former senior official Emil Bove, said multiple people close to the matter. Since Bove’s exit for the federal bench, Singh’s tried emulating his heavy-handed tactics, admonishing prosecutors in liberal-leaning districts for not working hard enough at combating sanctuary city policies.
The persona isn’t always a natural fit for Singh, whom colleagues described as an endearing “bro,” often firing off “LFG!!!” texts for attaboy inspiration to prosecutors.
This tension was on display at the US attorney’s office in Washington last August during the White House-directed law enforcement surge.
What started as a pep talk devolved into Singh alienating a room full of seasoned criminal prosecutors when he lectured them on how to bring gun cases, four attorneys present said.
As multiple grand juries refused to indict Washingtonians on federal charges following mass street arrests, Singh instructed the office’s criminal team to ask the chief judge to dismiss jurors who presented hurdles and then “rinse and repeat” to a new panel.
Justice Department spokespeople didn’t respond to several requests for comment, nor did they make Singh available for an interview.
Key Endorsement
Singh’s ascent benefited from an endorsement from Trump’s informal legal adviser Mike Davis, who’d worked with him on the staff of Senate Judiciary Chairman
The first-generation son of Indian parents who grew up in New Jersey and Florida first worked for several GOP Capitol Hill offices while studying law at George Washington University.
He then served as an assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina and Middle District of Florida. Singh developed a competitive spirit in racking up courtroom appearances on gang violence and drug trafficking cases.
Davis said in an interview that, following Trump’s 2024 election victory, he “sang his praises to everyone,” touting Singh as fearless to Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, who were then awaiting Senate confirmation as DOJ’s top two officials.
Singh reported to the deputy AG’s office 13 months ago and quickly became an omnipresent figure prodding US attorneys’ offices for information far more frequently than chief prosecutors had experienced in prior administrations.
That was intentional, according to people close with him, who said Singh believes that tight control over US attorneys’ offices is necessary to rein in what he sees as rogue or lazy prosecutors and accelerate the department’s public safety mission.
Supporters of Trump’s immigration and transnational crime crackdowns found Singh a welcome partner. He backed US attorneys in disputes with Senate-confirmed division heads in Washington, vetoing more senior DOJ officials who tried setting a higher bar on cases, and sometimes getting cover from Blanche, two people said.
Singh has forged bonds with Bill Essayli and Jeanine Pirro, the chief prosecutors who’ve overseen stark MAGA makeovers at the Los Angeles and Washington offices, respectively.
One lawyer plugged into the dynamic said Essayli was so attuned to fulfilling Singh’s requests that it appeared he thought Singh was his boss. Essayli, for instance, yielded to Singh’s persistent calls for releasing a man from prison who’d pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes, the lawyer added.
Singh was also immersed in Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan’s takeover of the Eastern Virginia US attorney’s office in response to the president’s public scolding of Bondi for not prosecuting his perceived enemies. Office leaders were forced out for resisting indicting former FBI Director Comey, leaving Halligan—a first-time prosecutor—in need of trial litigators comfortable with pursuing the case.
Singh recruited two friends from North Carolina’s Eastern District to join the Comey case. A judge dismissed the indictment and an appeal is pending. Singh’s two former colleagues have since left DOJ altogether.
Unwelcome Distraction
Allies praise Singh’s intense energy. One close coworker referred to Singh as an octopus with 93 tentacles—one for each US attorney’s office with whom he’s simultaneously communicating.
Yet DOJ institutionalists said his approach is an unwelcome deviation from decades of apolitical norms. US attorneys report directly to the deputy attorney general, who often can be hands-on, but they are usually afforded leeway in determining how to meet local law enforcement needs.
His emails ordering case-specific data, such as listing all investigations fulfilling various Trump policies, and with single-day deadlines, have proven particularly problematic. Complying with those demands has meant late nights for supervisors redirected from reviewing search warrants or advancing significant prosecutions, several DOJ lawyers said.
Some since departed US attorneys’ offices leaders said the process felt like overt bullying, as they saw no evidence Singh found utility in the data.
He also peppered US attorneys with links to New York Post stories that function as investigative leads and expected readouts of their progress chasing them down the next day. Lawyers said the exercise distracted them from weightier cases.
Several offices started predicting which stories Singh would be messaging them about, which commonly involved immigrants accused of violence, and then sometimes responded they were best handled by local jurisdictions.
In one of his recent weekly meetings for US attorneys, Singh requested examples of adverse rulings that he perceived as judicial activism to provide fodder for potential impeachment referrals.
It’s part of the White House’s broader project of targeting judges, which Singh has been pressing DOJ leaders to escalate, three lawyers said. Last April he led the push for federal prosecutors in Wisconsin to bring felony charges against then-Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for obstructing ICE officers, said a person close to the case.
Prosecutor Roots
Singh’s embrace of his role as Trump DOJ enforcer is at odds with what past colleagues said is a chummy, nonpartisan reputation from Raleigh and Jacksonville. Several lawyers who knew Singh in those offices said they were surprised by his Trump appointment since they had no idea he was even a Republican.
One defense counsel said Singh was the only prosecutor her clients ever liked. Defendants high-fived him after hearings, appreciating that he treated them with humanity.
He cultivated trust with gang member defendants over conversations about hip-hop, two people said. They recalled imprisoned gang members later calling Singh for advice without looping in their defense lawyers.
As a behind-the-scenes operator, Singh’s name no longer appears in criminal case pleadings. One notable exception came in December when a Tennessee federal judge’s order suggested he’d directed the human smuggling indictment of Abrego Garcia following his return from a Salvadoran prison.
Singh may now be summoned to Nashville to testify in a hearing that would examine whether his intent in calling shots on that case warrants a dismissal.
To Davis, who helped Singh land the role, his ally is just doing his job.
“Every federal prosecutor and every federal agent in America reports to the deputy attorney general,” Davis said. “If they work for a US attorney’s office, they do that through Aakash Singh.”
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