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Damian Williams (lawyer)

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Damian Williams
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office
October 10, 2021
Appointed byJoe Biden
Preceded byAudrey Strauss
Personal details
Born
Andre Damian Williams Jr.

1980 (age 43–44)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Emmanuel College, Cambridge (MPhil)
Yale University (JD)

Andre Damian Williams Jr. (born 1980)[1] is an American lawyer who is the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is the first black person to hold this position.[2] He has been involved in the prosecution of numerous high-profile individuals, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean Combs, Mayor Eric Adams, and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.

Early life and education

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Williams was born in New York City, and raised in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the son of Jamaican immigrants.[3] His parents are divorced.[2] He attended Woodward Academy for high school where he was student body president in his final year.[2] He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard University in 2002 and a Master of Philosophy in international relations from Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 2003, where he was awarded the Lionel de Jersey Harvard Scholarship in 2002.[1][4] Afterward, Williams worked for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and South Carolina and as a "body man" for the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe.[2] He then enrolled at Yale Law School. Following his first year of law school, Williams clerked for the office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He obtained a Juris Doctor from Yale in 2007,[5] where he was supported by The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans and was also an editor of the Yale Law Journal.[6] One of his essays about improving voting rights after Hurricane Katrina was published in the Yale Law Journal in 2007.[2][7]

Career

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Williams began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2007 to 2008. He then served as a law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court from 2008 to 2009. From 2009 to 2012, he was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. From 2012 to 2021, he served as an assistant United States attorney in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In the role, he served as a chief of the securities and commodities fraud task force from 2018 to 2021.[5]

In 2018, Williams helped secure the conviction of Sheldon Silver, the former speaker of the New York State Assembly.[8]

U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York

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In March 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recommended Williams to be the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.[3] On August 10, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Williams to serve in the role.[8][9]

On September 30, 2021, his nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote.[10] On October 5, 2021, Williams was confirmed in the Senate by voice vote.[2][11] He became the first African-American U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and, as of October 2021, was one of seven African-Americans among 232 assistant U.S. attorneys and executives in the district.[2][12][13] He was sworn into office on October 10, 2021.[14] Upon his confirmation, Williams was slated to oversee cases including the trial of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and the case of Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, who was charged with committing the 2017 New York City truck attack.[8]

Williams oversaw the indictment of Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin, who resigned after being arrested on federal bribery charges.[15]

On December 13, 2022, his office indicted Sam Bankman-Fried, ex-CEO of FTX, on eight counts of fraud and conspiracy.[16] On March 23, 2023, his office also indicted Do Kwon, co-founder of TerraUSD upon his arrest at the Podgorica Airport in Montenegro, on eight counts of fraud and conspiracy. [17] On November 2, 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of the seven counts that went to the jury.[18]

On January 6, 2023, his office announced that Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jennifer Shah was sentenced by United States District Judge Sidney H. Stein to 78 months in prison for running a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme. Shah previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.[19]

On September 22, 2023, Williams announced the indictment of Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey on bribery charges.[20]

On September 17, 2024, Williams announced the Diddy indictment.[21]

On September 26, 2024, Williams announced the Eric Adams indictment.[22]

Personal life

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The Williams family is from Frome, a sugar producing region in Westmoreland, Jamaica.[6][23] Williams married academic and fellow Harvard graduate Jennifer Wynn in 2012 in Manhattan, five years after they met on a bus trip from Washington to New York.[2][24]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Questionnaire for Non-Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Weiser, Benjamin (October 7, 2021). "For the First Time in 232 Years, a black Prosecutor Leads a Storied Office". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Sommerfeldt, Chris; Goldberg, Noah (August 10, 2021). "Schumer asks Biden to nominate first-ever black Manhattan U.S. attorney". nydailynews.com. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  4. ^ "U.S. Attorney Damian Williams Appointed To Chair Attorney General Merrick B. Garland's Advisory Committee". www.justice.gov (Press release). March 30, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "President Biden Announces Eight Nominees to Serve as U.S. Attorneys" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ a b "Meet the Fellows | Damian Williams". www.pdsoros.org. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  7. ^ Williams, Damian. "Reconstructing Section 5: A Post-Katrina Proposal for Voting Rights Act Reform". www.yalelawjournal.org. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (August 10, 2021). "Biden Nominates Damian Williams as U.S. Attorney in Manhattan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  9. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. August 11, 2021.
  10. ^ "Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Latest Slate of U.S. Attorney Nominations" (Press release). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. September 30, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  11. ^ "PN1038 - Nomination of Damian Williams for Department of Justice, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". www.congress.gov. October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  12. ^ Weiser, Benjamin (March 23, 2021). "Manhattan Is On Track to Have Its First black U.S. Attorney". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  13. ^ Castronuovo, Celine (August 10, 2021). "Biden taps Damian Williams as US attorney for Manhattan". The Hill. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  14. ^ Berthelsen, Christian (October 11, 2021). "Wall Street Enforcer Becomes First black U.S. Attorney for Manhattan". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  15. ^ Zapotosky, Matt (April 12, 2022). "N.Y. lieutenant governor resigns after being charged with corruption". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  16. ^ "Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested and Charged With Fraud: Live Video and Latest News". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  17. ^ "Montenegrin police charge crypto founder Do Kwon for forging documents". Reuters. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  18. ^ Cohen, Luc; Godoy, Jody (November 3, 2023). "Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of multi-billion dollar FTX fraud". Reuters. Retrieved November 12, 2023.
  19. ^ Diaz, Jaclyn (January 6, 2023). "Jen Shah, 'Real Housewives' star, sentenced to 6 1/2 years for telemarketing fraud". NPR. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  20. ^ "Sen. Bob Menendez indicted on bribery charges". NBC News. September 22, 2023. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  21. ^ https://www.cnn.com/entertainment/live-news/sean-diddy-combs-arrested-nyc-09-17-2024/index.html
  22. ^ https://abc7ny.com/amp/post/us-politics-what-know-damian-williams-attorney-southern-district-ny-prosecuting-nyc-mayor-eric-adams/15359397/
  23. ^ "Jamaican, Damian Williams Tapped to Head U.S. Attorney's Office in New York". South Florida Caribbean News. April 4, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  24. ^ "Jennifer Wynn and Damian Williams". The New York Times. July 29, 2012. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
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Media related to Damian Williams at Wikimedia Commons

Legal offices
Preceded by United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
2021–present 		Incumbent
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