Crime

Trump-Appointed Detroit U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider Resigning

January 21, 2021, 8:00 PM by  Allan Lengel

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Matthew Schneider: "It has been the honor of my lifetime." (Photo: Department of Justice)

Detroit U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider, a Trump appointee whose office prosecuted scores of crooked politicians and union officials, announced Thursday he's resigning, effective Feb. 1.

He plans to join the Detroit law firm Honigman as a partner and co-leader of its white collar defense and investigations practice.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve the people of Eastern Michigan, alongside the incredibly hard-working team at the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Schneider said. “In the last three years, this team has overcome tremendous challenges, from the longest federal government shutdown in American history, to an enormous rise in violent crime, the greatest increase in civil unrest since 1967 and a global pandemic."

Saima Mohsin, the office's first assistant prosecutor, will serve as acting U.S. Attorney. President Joe Biden will fill the post.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions first appointed Schneider in January 2018.  About five months later, U.S. District Court judges voted for him continue in office. In 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed his nominnation by President Trump.

Schneider was critical of Trump's decision this week to commute the 28-year-sentence of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who served seven years in prison. Kilpatrick was freed on Wednesday.

A press release lists high-profile cases his office handled:

● An anti-corruption and anti-fraud civil lawsuit against the UAW, and a proposed consensual resolution to bring independent oversight to the union and eliminate corruption among its leadership

● The largest investigation and prosecution of corrupt auto company executives and UAW officials in American history, which has thus far led to the convictions of 15 persons for fraud and corruption crimes, including two UAW international presidents

● Obstruction of justice charges against Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith for attempting to get a friend and two assistant prosecutors to make false statements to federal law enforcement officers and a federal Grand Jury

● In coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan, the investigation of six men who have been charged federally with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

● The first indictment of a U.S. citizen arrested on a battlefield in Syria while fighting in support of ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization

● The largest U.S. civil settlement relatred to drug diversion in a major health system, resulting in a $7.7-million settlement by McLaren Health Care Corp.

● The conviction and life sentence of a Canadian man who stabbed and attempted to kill a Flint Bishop Airport police officer in an act inspired by the ideology of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden



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