Danielle Sassoon

The new acting head of the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is Danielle Sassoon, best known for the successful 2023 prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud in his cryptocurrency business. Sassoon is expected to serve as interim U.S. attorney for a relatively short time; Mr. Trump’s choice for the post, Jay Clayton, must be confirmed by the Senate. Sassoon also prosecuted Lawrence V. Ray, who was convicted in 2022 of extortion and sex trafficking related to his abuse of students in his daughter’s dormitory at Sarah Lawrence College. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Sassoon replaces Edward Y. Kim, who has led the office since December, when Damian Williams, who was the U.S. attorney under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., stepped down. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in History and Literature in 2008 and from Yale Law School in 2011. After law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States during October Term 2012-2013. Danielle was also a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.