Donald Trump Appoints Anti-Immigrant Official as Acting US Attorney General

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - US President Donald Trump named anti-immigrant Justice Department official James McHenry as acting US attorney general on Monday.

McHenry will serve until Trump’s pick, Pam Bondi, is confirmed by the US Senate, a Justice Department official said, according to Reuters.

McHenry, who is seen as a hardliner on immigration, had worked at the Justice Department in a position overseeing immigration judges before Monday’s appointment, Politico reported.

Trump’s first attorney general in his first term, Jeff Sessions, appointed McHenry in 2017 as acting director of the Justice Department component that runs immigration courts, the Executive Office of Immigration Review. He was made the job permanent the following year.

McHenry began working at the Justice Department in 2003 and later served as a senior attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the US Department of Homeland Security. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School.

McHenry will run a Justice Department with an agenda of making dramatic changes in the early days of the Trump administration. The role will include defending Trump’s agenda against legal challenges.

Trump’s former defense attorney, Emil Bove, will temporarily serve as acting deputy attorney general, the official said.

McHenry will temporarily head a Justice Department unit focused on immigration during Trump’s first term.

Separately, the White House named Brian Driscoll as acting FBI director. Driscoll, who currently heads the FBI’s Newark office, is taking over on an interim basis after current FBI career deputy director Paul Abbate retired on Monday.

The U.S. Senate is expected to hold a hearing on Bondi’s nomination on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2025. The Senate has not yet scheduled a hearing for Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel.

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