DuCharme resigns as acting U.S. attorney for Eastern District

From Brooklyneagle.com

His career has alternated between D.C. and Brooklyn since ’08

Seth D. DuCharme, acting U.S. attorney for the Brooklyn-based Eastern District of New York, announced on Monday that he is resigning his post effective March 19. 

DuCharme, the chief federal law enforcement officer for the district comprising Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau and Suffolk counties, had been on the job for less than eight months. He was appointed July 10, 2020 by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr. 

Reports published last month said that the Biden administration was expected to ask all Trump-era U.S. attorneys to resign. The changeover of U.S. attorneys is routine with a new administration — for example, in 2017 former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys to submit their registrations.DAILY TOP BROOKLYN NEWSNews for those who live, work and play in Brooklyn and beyond

DuCharme said, “Earlier today, I announced that I am stepping down as Acting U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, effective March 19, 2021. I have enjoyed a long and rewarding career in the Department, from Deputy U.S. Marshal to Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States, to my current position. At each stage of my career, I was blessed to be faced with worthy challenges on behalf of the American people.

“My time in EDNY and the department gives me great confidence that the American people are well served by forward-leaning professionals, who put mission first, and assume risks every day on behalf of the people they are sworn to serve,” he said. He added that he plans to go into private practice, and referred to Mark Lesko, his successor, as “a proven professional who has served the district and the nation with distinction.”

Among his achievements were the expansion of the office’s Rapid and Strategic Prosecution (RASP) Initiative to more effectively use crime data, and the creation of a Bank Integrity Task Force to investigate and charge corporate and individual actors who launder criminal proceeds using the U.S. banking system and to enforce anti-money laundering controls. 

DuCharme served as the principal attorney general at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from December 2019 until July 2020. From March 2019 to December 2019, he served as counselor to Attorney General Barr. 

Prior to his work in D.C., DuCharme served as chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where he initiated and supervised numerous investigations and prosecutions across a wide range of subject areas, including corporate and securities fraud, terrorism, cybercrime, public corruption, international narcotics trafficking, civil rights violations, and violent and organized crime. 

DuCharme first joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in March 2008 and has served in the General Crimes, Violent Crimes and Terrorism, and National Security and Cybercrime sections.