Christopher Kavanaugh is stepping down as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia at the end of the day on Friday.
Kavanaugh had already announced, back on Aug. 28, that he intended to resign at the end of the year, after his wife, Jasmine Hyejung Yoon, was confirmed as a judge in the Western District.
The awkward overlap forced cases in which the United States is a party, including all criminal cases, to be assigned to the other judges within the Western District of Virginia.
As it turns out, he would have been resigning anyway, with Donald Trump returning to the White House next month.
U.S. Attorney positions are political appointments, so Kavanaugh would have been a lame duck with the change in administration.
Kavanaugh, 44, a 2006 UVA Law grad, has served as the U.S. Attorney out our way since 2021.
Before his appointment to lead the office, Kavanaugh was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District unit from 2014-2021, serving as the chief national security prosecutor and senior litigation counsel in the office.
“It has been the honor of my life to lead this team of selfless individuals who are so dedicated to fairness, the rule of law, and doing what is right. I know that WDVA will continue to make an outsized impact as citizens of the Justice Department, and I look forward to its future,” Kavanaugh said in a statement on Friday.
Assistant United States Attorney Zachery T. Lee will serve as the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
Lee, 48, has served the Department of Justice since joining the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia in 2005 as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, transitioning to an Assistant United States Attorney in 2007.
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