Biden picks Damian Williams to lead powerful Manhattan U.S. attorney's office
10 August 2021
President Biden nominated Damian Williams to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, among a slate of names he picked to some of the nation's most powerful law enforcement posts Tuesday.
Why it matters: Williams would be the first Black person to land one of the most coveted positions in prosecution. The powerful Manhattan-based office has had purviewover some of the nation's most high-profile cases, like several inquiries into associates of former President Trump.
- Williams, a former clerk on the Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens, currently leads a securities fraud unit in the SDNY office.
Of note: Biden also nominated Jessica Aber to be the attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where she currently serves as a federal prosecutor, and lawyer Breon Peace to the same position in the Eastern District of New York.
- Both offices tend to handle sensitive and politically-charged cases.
Other U.S. attorney appointments named Tuesday include Carla Freedman to the Northern District of New York, William Ihlenfeld II to the Northern District of West Virginia, Christopher Kavanaugh to the Western District of Virginia, Darcie McElwee to the District of Maine and William Thompson to the Southern District of West Virginia.
Between the lines: The White House wrote in a statement that confirming the nominations would be key to the Biden administration's "effort to take on the uptick in gun crime that has been taking place for the last 18 months[.]"
What they're saying: "These individuals were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice," the White House wrote in a statement.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.