Who is John Lausch? U.S. attorney appointed by Trump and probing Biden documents to leave for private sector

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate documents with classified markings found at President Biden's former office at a Washington think tank and in the garage at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. Garland had previously appointed John Lausch, who is the U.S. attorney in Chicago, to examine how the documents ended up at the think tank.

Who is John Lausch? 

Lausch was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois by President Donald Trump in 2017. 

As the U.S. attorney, Lausch served as the top federal law enforcement official in the region encompassing 18 counties and 9 million people, including the city of Chicago. 

A graduate of Harvard University, where he was captain of the football team, he received his law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focused on corporate investigations and other complex litigation matters. He then worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois for 11 years, during which he tried more than 20 jury cases involving racketeering, fraud, narcotics, extortion, and firearms offenses.

He also served as deputy chief in the narcotics and gangs section and oversaw criminal prosecutions involving street gangs, fraud schemes and corrupt public officials. He led the Anti-Gang and Project Safe Neighborhoods programs. He has lectured on federal criminal practice at the University of Chicago Law School and has taught trial advocacy at the Department of Justice's National Advocacy Center.

When President Biden took office in 2021, he planned to replace most Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys, including Lausch. But Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Illinois Democrats, urged the president not to fire Lausch.

Lausch had won the recommendation of a nonpartisan screening committee Durbin and Duckworth had set up to evaluate candidates for U.S. attorney, U.S. Marshals Service and federal judgeship positions in Illinois, and he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2017.

"While the President has the right to remove U.S. Attorneys, there is precedent for U.S. Attorneys in the Northern District of Illinois to remain in office to conclude sensitive investigations," they said in a joint statement early in the Biden administration. "We believe Mr. Lausch should be permitted to continue in his position until his successor is confirmed by the Senate, and we urge the Biden Administration to allow him to do so."

Lausch continued as U.S. attorney, but will leave the position soon. Garland said when he initially asked Mr. Lausch about the role in the documents probe, "he said he could lead the initial investigation but would be unable to accept any longer term assignment because he would be leaving the Department in early 2023 for the private sector."

The investigation into Biden's documents

Roughly 10 documents marked classified from Mr. Biden's time as vice president were discovered by his personal lawyers at his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement on Nov. 2, CBS News first reported Monday. 

The documents were turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration, and on Nov. 14 Garland assigned Lausch to examine the documents.

"U.S. Attorney Lausch is a by-the-book prosecutor who was confirmed with bipartisan support during the previous Administration," Durbin said in a statement this week. "I trust that he will handle this investigation with the utmost professionalism and without bias."  

A second "small number" of documents from the Obama administration were found by Mr. Biden's attorneys in a garage in his Wilmington home, Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, confirmed on Thursday. Another single document was discovered in an adjacent room. 

Lausch was informed by Mr. Biden's personal counsel of the materials found in the garage on Dec. 20. The FBI secured the documents, which were among other records from Mr. Biden's tenure as vice president.

On Thursday, Lausch also learned about the single document bearing classification markings that was found at Mr. Biden's Wilmington home.

Also on Thursday, Garland announced he had appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to oversee the investigation of the documents. Lausch was with Garland as he made the announcement at the Justice Department.

In November, Garland appointed another prosecutor, Jack Smith, as special counsel to investigate Mr. Trump's handling of sensitive government records found at his South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, after he left office.