United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, the office represents the United States government in criminal and civil cases across the country. The SDNY handles a broad array of cases, including but not limited to those involving white collar crime, domestic terrorism, cybercrime, public corruption, organized crime, and civil rights disputes.

U.S. Attorney's Office for the
Southern District of New York

Department overview
Formed	September 24, 1789 (1789-09-24) by the Judiciary Act of 1789
Jurisdiction	Southern District of New York
Headquarters	Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Department executives	Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney Margaret Garnett, Deputy U.S. Attorney
Parent Department	United States Department of Justice
Website	justice.gov/usao/nys
Map
Southern District of New York

The Southern District is known for being highly independent and controversial with "creative interpretations" of the law through "critical thinking" legal subcultures, earning itself the moniker the "Sovereign District of New York".^[1][2] Its resources, culture, and accompanying FBI field office have given the SDNY a reputation for being exceptionally aggressive in its pursuit of criminals.^[3][4] Due to its jurisdiction over the New York City borough of Manhattan, the preeminent financial center of the United States of America, the office's incumbent is often nicknamed the "Sheriff of Wall Street".^[5]

As of October 10, 2021^[update], the United States attorney is Damian Williams.^[6]

Organization

The office is organized into two divisions handling civil and criminal matters. The Southern District of New York also has two offices: in Manhattan and White Plains. The office employs approximately 220 assistant U.S. attorneys.^[7]

List of U.S. attorneys

In 1814, the District of New York was divided into the Northern and the Southern District.^[8]

Term		U.S. Attorney		Party		Appointed by
1	April 1815 – July 1819		Jonathan Fisk		Democratic-Republican	James Madison
2	July 1819 – February 1828		Robert L. Tillotson		Democratic-Republican	James Monroe
3	February 1828 – April 1829		John Duer		Democratic-Republican	John Quincy Adams
4	April 1829 – April 1834		James A. Hamilton		Democratic	Andrew Jackson
5	April 1834 – December 10, 1838		William M. Price		Democratic
6	December 1838 – March 1841		Benjamin F. Butler		Democratic	Martin Van Buren
7	March 1841 – March 1845		Ogden Hoffman		Whig	William Henry Harrison
8	March 1845 – September 1848		Benjamin F. Butler		Democratic	James Polk
9	September 1848 – December 1848		Charles McVean		Democratic
10	January 1849 – April 1849		Lorenzo B. Shepard		Democratic
11	April 1849 – March 1853		Jonathan Prescott Hall		Whig	Zachary Taylor
12	April 1853 – June 1854		Charles O'Conor		Democratic	Franklin Pierce
13	July 1854 – January 1858		John McKeon		Democratic
14	January 1858 – December 1859		Theodore Sedgwick		Democratic	James Buchanan
15	December 1859 – March 1861		James I. Roosevelt		Democratic
16	April 1861 – April 1865		Edward Delafield Smith		Republican	Abraham Lincoln
17	April 1865 – April 12, 1866		Daniel S. Dickinson		Democratic
18	April 1866 – April 25, 1869		Samuel G. Courtney		Democratic	Andrew Johnson
19	April 25, 1869 – July 20, 1870		Edwards Pierrepont		Republican	Ulysses S. Grant
20	July 20, 1870 – December 31, 1872		Noah Davis		Republican
21	December 31, 1872 – January 24, 1877		George Bliss Jr.		Republican
22	January 24, 1877 – March 12, 1883		Stewart L. Woodford		Republican
23	March 12, 1883 – July 6, 1885		Elihu Root		Republican	Chester A. Arthur
24	July 6, 1885 – March 1, 1886		William Dorsheimer		Democratic	Grover Cleveland
25	March 1, 1886 – September 16, 1889		Stephen A. Walker		Democratic
26	September 16, 1889 – February 1, 1894		Edward Mitchell		Republican	Benjamin Harrison
	February 1, 1894 – July 23, 1894		Henry C. Platt^[a]		Democratic	Grover Cleveland
27	July 23, 1894 – January 1898		Wallace Macfarlane		Democratic
28	January 1898 – January 1906		Henry Lawrence Burnett		Republican	William McKinley
29	January 1906 – April 8, 1909		Henry L. Stimson		Republican	Theodore Roosevelt
30	April 8, 1909 – May 7, 1913		Henry A. Wise		Republican	William Howard Taft
31	May 7, 1913 – April 1917		Hudson Snowden Marshall		Democratic	Woodrow Wilson
32	April 1917 – June 1921		Francis Gordon Caffey		Democratic
33	June 1921 – March 2, 1925		William Hayward		Republican	Warren Harding
34	March 2, 1925 – April 6, 1927		Emory Buckner		Republican	Calvin Coolidge
35	April 6, 1927 – September 29, 1930		Charles H. Tuttle		Republican
	September 29, 1930 – January 1931		Robert E. Manley^[b]		Republican	Herbert Hoover
36	January 1931 – November 21, 1933		George Z. Medalie		Republican
	November 22, 1933 – December 26, 1933		Thomas E. Dewey^[c]		Republican	Franklin D. Roosevelt
37	December 26, 1933 – May 16, 1935		Martin Thomas Conboy Jr.		Democratic
	May 16, 1935 – November 20, 1935		Francis W. H. Adams^[d]		Democratic
38	November 20, 1935 – December 1938		Lamar Hardy		Democratic
	December 1938 – March 1939		Gregory Francis Noonan^[e]		Democratic
39	March 1939 – March 1941		John T. Cahill		Democratic
40	March 1941^[f] – June 10, 1943		Mathias F. Correa		Democratic
	June 10, 1943 – August 2, 1943		Howard F. Corcoran^[g]		Democratic
41	August 2, 1943 – October 9, 1944		James B. M. McNally		Democratic
42	October 9, 1944^[h] – October 1949		John F. X. McGohey		Democratic
43	October 1949^[i] – September 18, 1951		Irving Saypol		Democratic	Harry S. Truman
44	September 18, 1951 – April 1, 1953		Myles J. Lane		Democratic
45	April 1, 1953 – July 11, 1955		J. Edward Lumbard		Republican^[9]	Dwight D. Eisenhower
	July 11, 1955 – September 1, 1955		Lloyd F. MacMahon^[j]		Republican
46	September 1, 1955 – July 9, 1958		Paul W. Williams		Republican
	July 9, 1958 – 1959		Arthur H. Christy^[k]		Republican
47	1959 – January 31, 1961		Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr.		Republican
	January 31, 1961 – April 18, 1961		Morton S. Robson^[l]		Republican	John F. Kennedy
48^[m]	April 18, 1961 – January 16, 1970		Robert Morgenthau		Democratic
49	January 16, 1970 – June 4, 1973		Whitney North Seymour Jr.		Republican	Richard Nixon
50	June 4, 1973 – October 31, 1975		Paul J. Curran		Republican
	October 31, 1975 – March 1, 1976		Thomas J. Cahill^[n]		Republican	Gerald Ford
51	March 1, 1976 – March 2, 1980		Robert B. Fiske		Republican
	March 3, 1980 – May 21, 1980		William M. Tendy^[o]		Republican	Jimmy Carter
52	May 22, 1980 – June 3, 1983		John S. Martin Jr.		Democratic
53	June 3, 1983 – January 1, 1989		Rudy Giuliani		Republican	Ronald Reagan
	January 1, 1989 – October 16, 1989		Benito Romano^[p]		Republican	George H. W. Bush
54	October 16, 1989 – May 31, 1993		Otto G. Obermaier		Republican
55	June 1, 1993 – January 7, 2002		Mary Jo White		Unaffiliated^[10]	Bill Clinton
56	January 7, 2002 – December 15, 2003		James Comey		Republican^[11]	George W. Bush
	December 15, 2003 – September 6, 2005		David N. Kelley^[q]		Democratic
57	September 6, 2005 – December 1, 2008		Michael J. Garcia		Republican
	December 1, 2008 – August 13, 2009		Lev Dassin^[r]		Unaffiliated
58	August 13, 2009 – March 11, 2017		Preet Bharara		Democratic	Barack Obama
	March 11, 2017 – January 5, 2018		Joon Kim^[s]		[data missing]	Donald Trump
	January 5, 2018 – June 20, 2020		Geoffrey Berman^[t]		Republican
	June 20, 2020 – October 10, 2021		Audrey Strauss^[u]		Democratic
59	October 10, 2021 – present		Damian Williams		Democratic	Joe Biden

1. Henry C. Platt served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
2. Robert E. Manley served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
3. Thomas E. Dewey served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
4. Francis W. H. Adams served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
5. Gregory Francis Noonan served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
6. Correa served as Acting U.S. Attorney from March to July 1941 before official confirmation to the post.
7. Howard F. Corcoran served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
8. McGohey served as Acting U.S. Attorney from October 9, 1944, to January 1945 before official confirmation to the post.
9. Saypol served as Acting U.S. Attorney from October 1949 to April 13, 1950, before official confirmation to the post.
10. Lloyd F. McMahon served as interim U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
11. Arthur H. Christy served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
12. Morton S. Robson served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
13. From September 6 to November 20, 1962, Morgenthau resigned his position to run for Governor of New York. After he was defeated, John F. Kennedy re-appointed him as U.S. Attorney. In the interim, Vincent Lyons Broderick served as acting U.S. Attorney from September 5 to November 20, 1962.
14. Thomas J. Cahill served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
15. William M. Tendy served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
16. Benito Romano served as Acting U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
17. David N. Kelley served as interim U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
18. Lev Dassin served as interim U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
19. Joon Kim served as interim U.S. Attorney during the vacancy
20. Geoffrey Berman served as Interim U.S. Attorney from January 5 to April 25, 2018^[12][13] and as court-appointed U.S. Attorney from April 25, 2018, to June 20, 2020^{[14][15][16][17]}
21. Audrey Strauss served as Acting U.S. Attorney from June 20, 2020, until she was court-appointed U.S. Attorney on January 16, 2021

Notable assistants

• Michael F. Armstrong, lawyer
• Bob Arum, boxing promoter
• Neil Barofsky, special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program
• Bernard Bell, professor at Rutgers School of Law–Newark
• Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey
• Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for President in 1944 and 1948
• Eddie Eagan, former Olympic athlete
• Louis Freeh, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
• Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• John Marshall Harlan II, associate justice, Supreme Court of the United States
• Elie Honig, lawyer and CNN Senior Legal Analyst
• Arthur L. Liman, criminal defense attorney
• Robert J. McGuire, former New York City Police Commissioner
• Michael Mukasey, former United States Attorney General
• Thomas Francis Murphy, federal prosecutor and judge in New York City; prosecutor in the two perjury trials of Alger Hiss
• Mary Grace Quackenbos, first woman to hold this post in the United States
• Charles Rangel, U.S. Representative from Harlem
• Henry Dwight Sedgwick, lawyer and author
• Franklin A. Thomas, former director of the Ford Foundation
• Maya Wiley (born 1964), civil rights activist and lawyer, 2021 mayoral candidate for New York City

In popular culture

Television

The Showtime drama series Billions is loosely based on Preet Bharara's prosecution of SAC Capital and other hedge funds.^[18]

The ABC legal drama For the People depicts new defense attorneys and prosecutors working in the Southern District of New York.

The 2020 Netflix series Fear City: New York vs The Mafia documents the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern District of New York against the Five Families of the Italian American Mafia in the 1980s.

References

1. Weiser, Benjamin; Rashbaum, William K. (March 10, 2017). "With Preet Bharara's Dismissal, Storied Office Loses Its Top Fighter". New York Times. In past presidential transitions, the storied office, long known to be so independent of Washington that some people referred to it as the Sovereign District of New York, has in large measure moved forward unaffected by politics.
2. Beale, Sara Sun (2011). "What Are the Rules if Everybody Wants to Play?". In Barkow, Anthony S.; Barkow, Rachel E. (eds.). Prosecutors in the Boardroom: Using Criminal Law to Regulate Corporate conduct. NYU Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780814787038. Finally, in some multijurisdictional cases there have been turf battles rather than cooperation. For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York ... Press accounts have noted the perception that the 'Sovereign District of New York' ... doesn't necessar[il]y play well with others.
3. McDermott, Terry; Meyer, Josh (2012). The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Little, Brown. p. PT42. ISBN 9780316202732. This was sometimes referred to—mockingly, but enviously, too—as the Sovereign District of New York. It was in many ways a separate fiefdom from the rest of the Bureau, creating its own rules and procedures. The agent in charge of the office, unlike all but one other agent in charge, held the rank of an assistant director of the entire FBI.
4. Ragavan, Chitra (March 26, 2001). "The pardon buck stops in New York: U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White takes the lead". U.S. News & World Report. Vol. 130, no. 12. p. 24. The Bush administration has left the answer largely in the hands of White, a registered independent, whose office, because of its legendary independence and tenacity, is known as the 'sovereign district'.
5. Relman, Eliza (May 15, 2017). "'History will judge this moment': The 'Sheriff of Wall Street' urges Republican lawmakers to hold Trump accountable". Business Insider. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
6. Berthelsen, Christian (October 11, 2021). "Wall Street Enforcer Becomes First Black U.S. Attorney for Manhattan". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
7. Organization and Operation, U.S. Attorney's Office
8. "Southern District of New York". www.justice.gov. March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
9. "History".
10. 2013 Speech to the 14th Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Corporate Securities and Financial Law Lecture, Fordham Law School SEC. (October 3, 2013). Retrieved December 14, 2014
11. Krieg, Gregory (May 9, 2017). "Who is James Comey: 7 things to know about the fired FBI director". CNN. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
12. "Statement Of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman On Appointment By Chief Judge". April 25, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
13. Weiser, Benjamin (August 9, 2009). "For Manhattan's Next U.S. Attorney, Politics and Prosecution Don't Mix". The New York Times.
14. Erica Orden; Evan Perez; Shimon Prokupecz (October 12, 2019). "Manhattan US attorney in the spotlight with another high profile investigation of Trump's inner circle". CNN. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
15. Scannell, Kara. "US Attorney Geoffrey Berman asserts independence from Justice Department". CNN. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
16. Erica Orden; Kara Scannell (February 15, 2020). "Attorney general's actions spark outrage and unease among US prosecutors". CNN. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
17. Spinelli, Dan. "Report: Barr Protected Turkish Bank From Prosecution to Appease Erdogan". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
18. Tallerico, Brian (April 2, 2017). "Billions Recap: Agents of Chaos". Vulture. Retrieved April 25, 2017.

External links

• United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Official Website