Trump Administration Asks U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade To Resign

DETROIT, MI — U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade, the first woman to serve the Eastern District of Michigan in that position, has confirmed that she will resign following a request from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump. She is among 45 other U.S. attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama who have been asked to resign.

It’s unclear when McQuade will step down, but the requests for the U.S. attorneys’ resignations wasn’t unusual. New presidents typically ask for political appointees to resign, particularly if they were appointed by a president of a different party, as McQuade was when she was appointed by Obama on Jan. 4, 2010.

There are 93 U.S. attorneys across the country. Forty-seven of them had previously resigned.

Trump administration spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement that until relacements are confirmed, “the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. attorney’s offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting and deterring the most violent offenders.”

In a statement late Friday confirming that she has been asked to resign, McQuade said she has “loved serving in this job as much as anyone has ever loved any job.”

“It has been an incredible privilege to work alongside public servants who devote their tremendous talents to improving the quality of life in our community,” she said. “I am proud to have served as U.S. Attorney in the Obama Administration.”

McQuade has overseen a number of high-profile cases during her tenure, including:

• The conviction of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and more than 30 others on public corruption charges;
• The conviction and life sentence of an Al-Qaeda operative for attempting to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 with a bomb concealed in his underwear;
• The conviction and 45-year sentence Dr. Farid Fata for lying to patients about having cancer so that he could bill Medicare for expensive chemotherapy treatments;
• The conviction and $4.3 billion fine against Volkswagen AG for cheating on emissions tests;
• The conviction and $1 billion fine against Takata Corp. for fraudulently concealing defective airbags; and
• Settlements with Pittsfield Township to permit the building of an Islamic School and with the City of Sterling Heights to permit the building of a mosque under religious land use laws.

McQuade also joined with other law enforcement leaders to launch Detroit One, a violence reduction strategy and community partnership. Since Detroit One began in 2013, homicide rates, non-fatal shootings and carjackings in Detroit have decreased. A key component of the initiative is the Ceasefire gang intervention program. A similar enforcement initiative, Flint First, was recently launched in Flint.

Upon taking office, McQuade restructured the office for the first time in 35 years to focus attorney resources on district priorities. At that time, McQuade created new units dedicated to violent crime, public corruption, health care fraud and civil rights. Each unit has seen robust enforcement activity. McQuade’s vision has been to use the resources of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to improve the quality of life for the people of the Eastern District of Michigan, focusing on enforcement, prevention and community trust.

At the national level, McQuade served as Vice Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee under Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and served as co-chair of the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee since 2010.

Before becoming U.S. attorney, McQuade was an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit for 12 years, serving as deputy chief of the National Security Unit. She prosecuted cases involving terrorism financing, foreign agents, export violations and threats, and served as the district’s crisis management coordinator.

McQuade practiced law at the firm of Butzel Long in Detroit from 1993 to 1998, and served as a law clerk to Judge Bernard A. Friedman on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1991 to 1993. From 2003 to 2009, McQuade served as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, teaching criminal law in the evenings.

Born in Detroit, McQuade is a 1987 graduate of the University of Michigan and a 1991 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. She and her husband have four children.

The Eastern District of Michigan covers 34 counties and 6 million residents. The United States Attorney’s Office, with staffed offices in Detroit, Flint and Bay City, has 115 attorneys and another 100 support professionals, and conducts all criminal and civil litigation in the district involving the United States government.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)