James McHenry (lawyer)

Last updated
James McHenry
Acting United States Attorney General
In office
January 20, 2025 –February 5, 2025

James Ridley McHenry III is an American lawyer who is the chief administrative hearing officer in the United States Department of Justice. [2] He served as acting United States Attorney General from January 20 to February 5, 2025. [3] He was appointed by President Donald Trump to temporarily fill the spot until Trump's nominee, Pam Bondi, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. [4]

Contents

Education and career

McHenry earned a BS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and both a JD and MA in political science from Vanderbilt University. [3] [5]

He started at the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, serving as a judicial law clerk and later attorney advisor at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). He then was a senior lawyer in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and served a detail as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Criminal Division in the Northern District of Georgia. During 2014–2016, he was an administrative law judge in the Social Security Administration. [3]

During the first Trump administration, McHenry was director of EOIR, first on an acting basis starting in 2017, and then permanently the following year. [2] [3] [6] He then became EOIR's chief administrative hearing officer in January 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration. [4] [5] [6]

References

  1. ↑ "Executive Order 14136". Federal Register . January 13, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Penn, Ben (2025-01-20). "Trump Taps DOJ Immigration Official as Acting Attorney General". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Trump taps longtime immigration official as acting attorney general". POLITICO. 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
  4. 1 2 Iyer, Elise Hammond, Antoinette Radford, Maureen Chowdhury, Tori B. Powell, Aditi Sangal, Michelle Shen, Kaanita (2025-01-20). "Trump sworn in, expected to sign executive actions: Live updates | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2025-01-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 "Executive Office for Immigration Review: Chief Administrative Hearing Officer". U.S. Department of Justice. 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  6. 1 2 Montoya-Galvez, Camilo (2021-01-27). "James McHenry, Trump-era head of immigration courts, to step down". CBS News. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
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Preceded by United States Attorney General
Acting
2025		Succeeded by
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