The top prosecutor for the nation’s capital, who spearheaded the Justice Department (DOJ)’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, said Monday he will resign just days before President-elect Trump’s inauguration next month.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves announced in a press release that he will step down from the post on Jan. 16, four days before Trump is set to return to the White House.
“Serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has been the honor of a lifetime,” Graves said. “I am deeply thankful to Congresswoman (Eleanor) Holmes Norton for recommending me; to President Biden for nominating me; and to Attorney General (Merrick) Garland for placing his trust in me.”
A career prosecutor, Graves joined D.C.’s U.S. Attorney’s office in 2007 and served in several roles before being sworn in as top prosecutor on Nov. 5, 2021.
His tenure has largely been defined by the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which Garland has said yielded one of the “largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations” in the Justice Department’s history.
Graves’s office has charged more than 1,500 defendants accused of participating in the riot, their charges underpinned by tens of thousands of hours of video and photo evidence, cell phone data and eyewitness testimony. Of those defendants, 996 people have pleaded guilty and 255 people were convicted by a jury or judge.
Trump has said that one of his first actions in office will be offering pardons for some of the defendents in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The statement announcing Graves’s departure listed prosecutions against climate activists targeting “priceless artwork and an original copy of the Constitution” and Gaza conflict protestors who assaulted law enforcement and destroyed federal property among the office’s other efforts to “defend democracy.”
Under Graves, the office indicted members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a hack-and-leak operation against Trump’s campaign and separately charged a murder-for-hire plot targeting former National Security Advisor John Bolton and others.
“Because politically motivated violence and destruction rip at the fabric of our society, Mr. Graves made federally prosecuting such crimes a priority,” said the press release announcing Graves’s departure.
Graves’s office also oversaw the largest financial seizure in DOJ history, when law enforcement recovered $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange.
Trump has not yet announced his pick for D.C.’s U.S. Attorneys office, though he has announced selections for other key DOJ posts.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was tapped to serve as his attorney general, and two of his personal lawyers — Todd Blanche and Emil Bove — were selected for the agency’s second and third highest-ranking positions. Another personal lawyer, D. John Sauer, was picked to serve as U.S. Solicitor General, DOJ’s fourth highest-ranking spot.
