James R. McHenry III is an American lawyer who is the chief administrative hearing officer in the United States Department of Justice.[1] He served as the acting U.S. attorney general from January 20 to February 5, 2025.[2] 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.[3]
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.[2][4]
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.[2]
During the first Trump administration, McHenry was director of EOIR, first on an acting basis starting in 2017, and then permanently the following year.[1][2][5] He then became EOIR's chief administrative hearing officer in January 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration.[3][4][5]
References
- ^ a b Penn, Ben (2025-01-20). "Trump Taps DOJ Immigration Official as Acting Attorney General". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
- ^ a b c d "Trump taps longtime immigration official as acting attorney general". POLITICO. 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2025-01-20.
- ^ a b 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) - ^ a b "Executive Office for Immigration Review: Chief Administrative Hearing Officer". U.S. Department of Justice. 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
- ^ a b 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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