President Donald Trump’s administration moved quickly to name a veteran attorney with nearly two decades of experience in Massachusetts as the state’s top federal prosecutor on an interim basis.
Acting U.S. Attorney General James McHenry on Monday named Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Belaire Foley as U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts, the administration announced Tuesday. Foley was sworn in Tuesday.
Attorneys general can appoint U.S. attorneys for up to 120 days. To serve a more permanent term, Foley would need to be nominated by Trump and secure confirmation before the U.S. Senate.
Foley succeeds Joshua Levy, who stepped down from the role three days before Trump took office. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Murrane served in the top post on an acting basis during the short span between Levy and Foley.
“I can think of no greater mission than that of public service and it is the honor of a lifetime to now serve in the capacity of U.S. Attorney. I am profoundly humbled by the opportunity to serve our great nation as the chief federal law enforcement officer in Massachusetts,” Foley said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to working with the outstanding men and women of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to protect our communities and support the principles of the rule of law.”
Foley started working as a federal prosecutor 23 years ago in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. She joined the Massachusetts office in 2006 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division, and she also spent time as deputy chief of the narcotics and money laundering unit.
Since 2013, Foley has served as the lead attorney for Boston’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.
In 2017, during Trump’s first term, Foley was reportedly interviewed for the top prosecutor job in Massachusetts before the president nominated Andrew Lelling.
Much of Foley’s work in the U.S. attorney’s office has focused on drug and sex trafficking offenses. Over the years, press releases have regularly named her as the lead prosecutor on those kinds of cases.
Trump has made illegal drugs an early focus in his second term. On his first day in office, he issued an executive order seeking to define some drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
