Manhattan top federal prosecutor Damian Williams to resign in December

A top federal prosecutor in Manhattan is set to resign in December, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said in a Monday press release.

According to the release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Monday that he plans to exit his current role at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York at “11:59 p.m. on December 13, 2024.”

“Today is a bittersweet day for me, as I announce my resignation as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It is bitter in the sense that I am leaving my dream job, leading an institution I love that is filled with the finest public servants in the world,” Williams said in a statement in the release.

“It is sweet in that I am confident I am leaving at a time when the Office is functioning at an incredibly high level — upholding and exceeding its already high standard of excellence, integrity, and independence,” he continued.

President Biden tapped Williams to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in August 2021. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recommended Williams, who had served as chief of the Manhattan office’s securities and commodities fraud task forces prior to his current role, to Biden in March 2021.

Notable figures like New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have faced prosecution from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York during Williams’s time as its leader.