US Attorney Richard Donoghue to Leave Eastern District of New York for Role at Main Justice
Donoghue will be the top deputy to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.
July 02, 2020 at 04:58 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
Tuesday, July 16, 2019 Richard Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, speaks during a news conference in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: Richard Drew/APThe U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York is leaving the Brooklyn office for a new role in the Department of Justice.
U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue informed his staff Thursday that he will be the new principal associate deputy attorney general, a spokesman for the office confirmed. His announcement did not mention a successor, according to the spokesman.
In that role, Donoghue will be the top deputy to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.
Donoghue was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January 2018. In May of that year, the judges of the Eastern District decided to keep him in the role.
During Donoghue's tenure, prosecutors pursued cases of national importance, including bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges against the Chinese telecom giant Huawei. They also won a guilty verdict against the Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera and guilty pleas from several key figures in the so-called "sex cult" NXIVM.
They also won a case against former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and one of his top deputies, who were both convicted of concealing police brutality in December. More recently, prosecutors in the office have pursued charges of arson and arson conspiracy against a pair of attorneys accused of firebombing an empty New York City Police Department vehicle during New York City's ongoing protests against police brutality.
A U.S. Army veteran, Donoghue worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District from 2000 to 2011 and held positions including chief of the criminal division and chief of the Long Island criminal division. Before he returned to the office to take the top job, he was chief litigation counsel for CA Technologies.
He is a graduate of St. John's University School of Law.
Donoghue's departure would be the second in short order for New York City's U.S. attorneys, as Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York was fired by President Donald Trump in a dramatic manner last month.
First assistant U.S. attorney Mark Lesko is second in charge of the Brooklyn-based federal prosecutors' office.
READ MORE:
Former Suffolk County DA, Top Aide Found Guilty of Obstruction of Justice in Cover-Up Case
Geoffrey Berman Resigns as Manhattan US Attorney, Ending Standoff With William Barr
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