The U.S. Justice Department's tax division finally has a nominee for assistant attorney general, more than three years into the Trump administration.

The White House said Richard Zuckerman, who joined the tax division in December 2017 from Detroit-based firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, would be nominated for the Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general post. Zuckerman has served as principal deputy assistant attorney general, a role that has effectively left him in charge of the tax division in the absence of a Senate-confirmed leader. The Senate last confirmed a tax division leader in 2012.

The Trump administration struggled earlier to fill the top tax division role, according to sources with knowledge of the selection process at the start of the president's term. At least one lawyer entered the White House vetting process but was not ultimately nominated, those lawyers said.

The White House did not immediately comment Monday about why it did not put forth a nominee sooner. A senior Justice Department official said U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who succeeded Jeff Sessions after his ouster in late 2018, grew familiar with Zuckerman last year and was impressed by his management of the tax division, whose staff of 500 positions includes more than 350 lawyers. Barr recommended that Zuckerman be nominated to fill the long-vacant assistant attorney general role, the official said.

Early in the Trump administration, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein lamented the slow pace of confirmation for key leadership posts at Main Justice. But those positions, including assistant attorney general posts for the criminal, civil and civil rights divisions, have all since been filled. The Trump White House had not offered a nominee for the tax division until Saturday afternoon, when the White House issued a press release.

Veteran tax lawyers in Washington said the lack of leadership at the tax division at Main Justice likely had not presented any substantial practical consequences. Zuckerman was able to perform most of the duties of any Senate-confirmed leader, the lawyers familiar with the office said.

Before joining the Justice Department, Zuckerman had been a lawyer at Honigman Miller since 1987. At the firm, where he reported earning $350,000 in partner income on a financial disclosure in 2018, Zuckerman focused on white-collar defense, civil and criminal tax litigation and securities fraud defense. He served as co-chairman of the firm's white-collar and government investigations practice group. Zuckerman was on the team that defended a Detroit Free-Press reporter in a fight to keep an anonymous source secret.

The Justice Department tax division's criminal enforcement priorities include stolen identity refund fraud, offshore tax evasion and financial fraud, according to the unit's most recent budget proposal. Prosecutors in the division regularly bring cases against tax preparers who allegedly file false returns and U.S. residents who are accused of fraud.

"Most tax return preparers provide competent and professional advice," Zuckerman said in a statement last year. "For those tax return preparers who choose to engage in fraudulent tax return preparation the Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to ending such tax fraud."

In another case, Zuckerman said DOJ and the IRS "are committed to working with the United States' international treaty partners to identify and stop individuals using hidden offshore accounts to evade tax laws."

Tax division lawyers are not leading the cases involving Trump's tax returns, the focus of several cases in trial courts and at the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump and the Justice Department have resisted congressional efforts, and efforts by the New York district attorney, to obtain financial information from Trump's accounting firm Mazars USA and Deutsche Bank. The U.S. Supreme Court in March will hear a trio of cases in which lawyers for Trump have argued that his financial records are beyond the reach of congressional subpoenas and from New York state investigators.

The Obama administration did not quickly fill the DOJ tax division leadership post, facing resistance from Senate Republicans.

In 2010, President Barack Obama withdrew the nomination of Mary Smith as the head of the tax division in the face of Republican opposition. The Senate in 2012 confirmed Kathryn Keneally, now a Jones Day partner. Keneally left the Justice Department in 2014 and remains the last Senate-confirmed leader of the tax division.

The full Senate did not advance the Obama nomination of Caplin & Drysdale partner Cono Namorato, despite broad bipartisan support from former DOJ and IRS leaders. Caroline Ciraolo, now at Kostelanetz & Fink, served as acting assistant attorney general for a time near the end of the Obama administration.

Trump reportedly took personal interest in the confirmation of the chief counsel at the Internal Revenue Service, the New York Times reported last year. The paper said Trump made a request to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to prioritize Michael Desmond's confirmation.

Desmond had run his own tax-focused firm in Santa Barbara for six years. He previously was a Bingham McCutchen partner from 2008 to 2012. The Senate confirmed Desmond in February 83-15. Desmond serves under IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, a longtime tax lawyer who joined the Trump administration in 2018 from the California firm Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez.