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 contiguous New York counties: the counties (coextensive boroughs of New York City) of New York (Manhattan) and Bronx, and the counties of 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.

The Southern District has earned itself the moniker the "Sovereign District of New York". Its resources, culture, and accompanying FBI field office have given the SDNY a reputation for being exceptionally aggressive in its pursuit of criminals. 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".

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.

List of U.S. attorneys

In 1814, the District of New York was divided into the Northern and the Southern District.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" |Term

! colspan="2" |U.S. Attorney

! colspan="2" |Party

!Appointed by

|- style="height:6em;"

| –

| data-sort-value="Washington, George" |frameless|180x180px

|Jonathan Fisk

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic-Republican

| data-sort-value="Adams, John" |James Madison

|- style="height:12em;"

| –

| data-sort-value="Adams, John" |frameless|4x4px

|Robert L. Tillotson

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic-Republican

|James Monroe

| –

|frameless|172x172px

|John Duer

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic-Republican

|John Quincy Adams

| –

|frameless|150x150px

|James A. Hamilton

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Andrew Jackson

| –

|frameless|4x4px

|William M. Price

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| –

|frameless|112x112px

|Benjamin F. Butler

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|Martin Van Buren

| –

|frameless|139x139px

|Ogden Hoffman

| style="background-color:"|

|Whig

|William Henry Harrison

| –

|frameless|112x112px

|Benjamin F. Butler

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="3" |James Polk

| –

|frameless|4x4px

|Charles McVean

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|10

| –

|frameless|147x147px

|Lorenzo B. Shepard

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|11

| –

| 147x147px

|Jonathan Prescott Hall

| style="background-color:"|

|Whig

|Zachary Taylor

|12

| –

|frameless|150x150px

|Charles O'Conor

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Franklin Pierce

|13

| –

|frameless|149x149px

|John McKeon

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|14

| –

|149x149px

|Theodore Sedgwick

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |James Buchanan

|15

| –

|frameless|166x166px

|James I. Roosevelt

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|16

| –

|frameless|121x121px

|Edward Delafield Smith

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |Abraham Lincoln

|17

| –

|frameless|136x136px

|Daniel S. Dickinson

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|18

| –

|Samuel G. Courtney

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|Andrew Johnson

|19

| –

|frameless|123x123px

|Edwards Pierrepont

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="4" |Ulysses S. Grant

|20

| –

|frameless|142x142px

|Noah Davis

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|21

| –

| 147x147px

|George Bliss Jr.

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|22

| –

|frameless|180x180px

|Stewart L. Woodford

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|23

| –

|frameless|148x148px

|Elihu Root

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|Chester A. Arthur

|24

| –

|frameless|170x170px

|William Dorsheimer

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Grover Cleveland

|25

| –

| 143x143px

|Stephen A. Walker

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|26

| –

| 120x120px

|Edward Mitchell

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|Benjamin Harrison

| –

|frameless|143x143px

|Henry C. Platt

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|rowspan="2" |Grover Cleveland

|27

| –

|Wallace Macfarlane

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|28

| –

|frameless|143x143px

|Henry Lawrence Burnett

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|William McKinley

|29

| –

|frameless|161x161px

|Henry L. Stimson

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|Theodore Roosevelt

|30

| –

| 125x125px

|Henry A. Wise

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|William Howard Taft

|31

| –

|frameless|155x155px

|Hudson Snowden Marshall

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Woodrow Wilson

|32

| –

|frameless|155x155px

|Francis Gordon Caffey

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|33

| –

| 155x155px

|William Hayward

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|Warren Harding

|34

| –

|frameless|155x155px

|Emory Buckner

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |Calvin Coolidge

|35

| –

|frameless|176x176px

|Charles H. Tuttle

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|Robert E. Manley

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|rowspan="2" |Herbert Hoover

|36

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|George Z. Medalie

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|Thomas E. Dewey

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|rowspan="10" |Franklin D. Roosevelt

|37

| –

|frameless|161x161px

|Martin Thomas Conboy Jr.

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| –

|Francis W. H. Adams

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|38

| –

|Lamar Hardy

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| –

|Gregory Francis Noonan

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|39

| –

|John T. Cahill

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|40

| –

|Mathias F. Correa

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|Howard F. Corcoran

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|41

| –

|James B. M. McNally

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|42

| –

|John F. X. McGohey

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|43

| –

|frameless|150x150px

|Irving Saypol

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Harry S. Truman

|44

| –

|Myles J. Lane

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|45

| –

|J. Edward Lumbard

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="5" |Dwight D. Eisenhower

| –

|Lloyd F. MacMahon

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|46

| –

|Paul W. Williams

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|Arthur H. Christy

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|47

| –

|Samuel Hazard Gillespie Jr.

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|Morton S. Robson

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |John F. Kennedy

|48

| –

|frameless|145x145px

|Robert Morgenthau

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|49

| –

| frameless|135x135px

|Whitney North Seymour Jr.

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |Richard Nixon

|50

| –

|Paul J. Curran

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|Thomas J. Cahill

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |Gerald Ford

|51

| –

|Robert B. Fiske

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|William M. Tendy

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |Jimmy Carter

|52

| –

|John S. Martin Jr.

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|53

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|Rudy Giuliani

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|Ronald Reagan

| –

|Benito Romano

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="2" |George H. W. Bush

|54

| –

|Otto G. Obermaier

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|55

| –

|frameless|168x168px

|Mary Jo White

| style="background-color:"|

|Unaffiliated

|Bill Clinton

|56

| –

|frameless|159x159px

|James Comey

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| rowspan="4" |George W. Bush

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|David N. Kelley

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|57

| –

|frameless|149x149px

|Michael J. Garcia

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

| –

|frameless|156x156px

|Lev Dassin

|Unaffiliated

|58

| –

|frameless|156x156px

|Preet Bharara

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|Barack Obama

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|Joon Kim

| rowspan="3" |Donald Trump

| –

|frameless|135x135px

|Geoffrey Berman

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|June 20, 2020 – October 10, 2021

|frameless|135x135px

|Audrey Strauss

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

|59

|October 10, 2021 – December 13, 2024

|frameless|135x135px

|Damian Williams

| style="background-color:"|

|Democratic

| rowspan="2" |Joe Biden

|December 13, 2024 – January 20, 2025

|Edward Kim (acting)

|January 21, 2025 – February 13, 2025

|frameless|135x135px

|Danielle Sassoon (acting)

| style="background-color:"|

|Republican

|rowspan="3" |Donald Trump

|February 13, 2025 - April 16, 2025

|Matthew Podolsky (acting)

|April 16, 2025 - Present

|frameless|135x135px

|Jay Clayton

Notable assistants

Michael F. Armstrong, lawyer
Bob Arum, boxing promoter
Debra A. Livingston, lawyer and judge
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.

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

External links

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