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The
office's current occupant, Tim Shea, has drawn fire for
decisions to scale back a sentencing recommendation on longtime
Trump friend Roger Stone and to drop prosecution of former White
House national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Shea will become the head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, said an administration official who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to disclose a plan that had not been made
public yet.
The White House said Justin Herdman, the current U.S. Attorney
for the Northern District of Ohio, will be nominated to Shea's
current role for the District of Columbia.
Current DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon will assume a
different senior position at the Justice Department, the
official added.
Shea's term as interim U.S. Attorney is close to expiring. Trump
has kept many appointees on acting or interim status, which
allows him to avoid seeking Senate confirmation but also limits
their time in their posts.
In February, Shea was involved in a decision to abruptly scale
back the sentencing recommendation for Stone. The line
prosecutors who argued the case before the jury all withdrew in
protest, with one also resigning from the Justice Department.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department sought to dismiss the
false-statement criminal charge against Trump's former national
security adviser Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty twice
to lying to the FBI about his contacts with former Russian
ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The career prosecutor on that case also withdrew. Shea was the
sole signer on the brief seeking to dismiss the charges.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Chris
Reese and Tom Brown)
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