for The New York Times: Court Extends Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Term, as Inauguration Nears by José A. Alvarado Jr.

News

for The New York Times: Court Extends Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Term, as Inauguration Nears

josé a. alvarado jr.

Dec 22, 2020

Location: New York City

Six months ago, Audrey Strauss became the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan after a chaotic 24 hours in which President Trump fired her predecessor, Geoffrey S. Berman, whose office had been conducting politically sensitive investigations into people in Mr. Trump’s orbit.

By a quirk of legal timing, though, Ms. Strauss’s term was scheduled to expire in mid-January, several days before the Trump administration ends.

On Tuesday, the judges of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, exercising a rarely used power, formally appointed her to the post, extending her tenure as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

While the court gave no reasons, the move clearly seemed intended to keep Ms. Strauss in her job until President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office and can fill the post with his own candidate.
The vote, which the court said was unanimous, could also be aimed at trying to lend some stability in the Southern District prosecutor’s office, where Mr. Berman’s ouster was widely seen as the culmination of deep and longstanding tensions between the office and the White House.

Photographed for The New York Times --

Court Extends Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Term, as Inauguration Nears
A quirk of legal timing had left Audrey Strauss’s tenure as acting head of the Southern District of New York set to expire just before the end of the Trump administration.

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José A. Alvarado Jr.

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