SEATTLE (AP) - A longtime federal prosecutor in Seattle is heading the U.S. attorney’s office until President Joe Biden nominates and the Senate confirms the next U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington.
The Justice Department on Monday appointed Tessa Gorman as acting U.S. attorney to replace Brian Moran, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who stepped down Friday.
Gorman is a 24-year veteran of the DOJ and had been serving as Moran’s second-in-command. She has supervised some of the most high-profile cases in Seattle U.S. attorney’s office, including the prosecution of the Chinese tech giant Huawei for alleged theft of trade secrets.
In 2008, Gorman helped dismantle the Washington Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, serving on the trial team that obtained racketeering, murder and assault convictions against club members. It was the first racketeering jury verdicts against the Hells Angels in 25 years.
Gorman is a native of Olympia. She graduated from Yale before earning her law degree from the University of California’s Berkeley Law School. She joined the Justice Department in 1998 and has been a prosecutor in Seattle since 2001.
Washington U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have asked the president to appoint Nick Brown, Gov. Jay Inslee’s former counsel, as Seattle U.S. attorney.
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