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New U.S. Attorney Picked For Chicago: Beverly's John Lausch

By Heather Cherone | June 30, 2017 12:11pm | Updated on July 3, 2017 7:51am
 John Lausch is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and a resident of Beverly.
John Lausch is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and a resident of Beverly.
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Flickr/Joselito Tagarao; Kirkland & Ellis

CHICAGO — A Beverly man and a partner at a powerful Downtown law firm is expected to be tapped by President Donald Trump to be Chicago's new top federal law enforcement officer, sources said.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, John Lausch, 48, would replace Zachary Fardon, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 2013 until March, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked all U.S. attorneys hired during the Obama Administration to step down.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joel R. Levin's spokesman Joseph Fitzgerald declined to comment on the selection of Lausch, which was first reported by the Tribune.

A graduate of Joliet Catholic Academy and Harvard University, Lausch served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1999-2010 before becoming a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

Lausch could not be reached for comment immediately Friday.

A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel declined to comment on the news of Lausch's appointment because it had not formally been announced. However, he said the mayor's "principal interest is that whomever the next USA for the Northern District is, he or she prioritizes prosecution of gun crimes."

The news of Lausch's selection broke on the same day as local officials planned to announce the creation of the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force made up of Chicago Police, federal agents, state troopers and intelligence analysts as well state and federal prosecutors "will work exclusively on stemming the flow of illegal guns throughout Chicago and the targeted enforcement of repeat gun offenders," Chicago Police Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Lausch, who is married with three children, must win the endorsement of Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth before taking the $155,540-a-year U.S. attorney's post.

New presidents typically replace United States attorneys appointed by their predecessors, especially when control of the White House changes from one political party to another.

In 1993, the Clinton administration fired all 93 United States attorneys on the same day.

In the months leading up to his departure, Fardon helped lead the investigation of the Chicago Police by the Department of Justice. That inquiry found the police force routinely violated the civil rights of residents by using excessive force caused by poor training and nonexistent supervision.

After resigning, Fardon left Chicago officials with a detailed look at the violence that he said left many in his office with a "sense of frustration and despair."