Jeffrey Rosen replaces the recently resigned William Barr next week
US Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen has been appointed as acting head of the Department of Justice despite lacking experience as a prosecutor, the American Bar Association Journal reported.
He replaces Attorney General William Barr, who vacates the post next week.
Barr’s resignation was announced on Monday via President Donald Trump’s Twitter. The move followed Barr’s statement that the DoJ did not find any evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Rosen steps into his new role without prior prosecution experience. Previously, the former Kirkland & Ellis senior partner was in a leading position at the Department of Transportation.
When Rosen was nominated to the role of deputy attorney general, the Journal said that he was a “seasoned bureaucrat” who had a reputation in the Department of Transportation as “a sharp and apolitical lawyer familiar with the levers and gauges of government.”
During his tenure at the DoJ, Rosen was among those who took the lead in the department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. He also headed up the opioid suit against Purdue Pharma, and played a role in the government’s legal battle involving the publication of ex-national security adviser John Bolton’s book.
The Wall Street Journal reported that according to Rosen’s colleagues, the incoming acting attorney general looks to aides for expert guidance in areas where he has limited experience.
Rosen’s old position will be filled by his leading deputy, former Eastern District of New York attorney Richard Donoghue. Donoghue has served as a military magistrate judge and a lawyer with the US Army JAG Corps.
Court victories recorded by Donoghue’s office include those against drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera and Keith Raniere, who led the NXIVM sex cult.
