United States Attorney’s Office

Eastern District of Michigan

Matthew Schneider
United States Attorney

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gina Balaya – (313) 226-9758
January 21, 2021 www.justice.gov/usao/mie/index.html

United States Attorney Matthew Schneider Resigns

DETROIT – United States Attorney Matthew Schneider submitted his

resignation letter to President Biden yesterday shortly after the President was
sworn into office. Schneider’s last day as the United States Attorney will be
February 1, 2021. After his resignation, he will immediately join a private law
firm based in Detroit.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve the people of Eastern
Michigan, alongside the incredibly hard-working team at the U.S. Attorney’s
Office,” Schneider said. “In the last three years, this team has overcome
tremendous challenges, from the longest federal government shutdown in
American history, to an enormous rise in violent crime, the greatest increase in
civil unrest since 1967, and a global pandemic. Through it all, the lawyers and
support staff of this office have faithfully enforced the law, supported our law
enforcement partners, and protected our fellow citizens, and I could not be
more proud of the work that they have accomplished.”

Schneider continued: “I’m extremely pleased to leave this office in the

hands of one of the finest federal prosecutors I’ve ever known, Saima Mohsin.
Saima is a dynamic trial lawyer and a talented manager. And, as the first
woman, immigrant, Muslim United States Attorney in American history, her
service is truly historic. Saima will be an outanding representative and
defender of our community as the Acting United States Attorney.”

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 Saima Mohsin will immediately assume office as Acting United States
Attorney, as provided for under the Vacancies Reform Act. Mohsin has served
as the First Assistant United States Attorney—a non-political position— since
March 2018. She is a career prosecutor, having served in the U.S. Attorney’s
Office since 2002, and prior to that as a Deputy New Jersey Attorney General
and an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan.

Mohsin stated, “It is a great honor to serve the citizens of the Eastern
District of Michigan as Acting United States Attorney. I am deeply committed
to fulfilling our core mission to faithfully enforce the law and seek justice for
all.”

Schneider has served as the chief federal law enforcement official in

Eastern Michigan since Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed him on
January 5, 2018. In May 2018, the judges of the United States District Court
voted to continue his term in office. In January 2, 2019, following his
nomination by President Trump, the United States Senate unanimously
confirmed his appointment.

While in office, Schneider hired more than 100 federal employees and
contractors, including approximately 40 Assistant United States Attorneys,
which is around one-third of the office’s attorneys. Approximately 70 percent
of those new employees have been women. Schneider said, “We’ve been
incredibly successful in the last three years in hiring outstanding public
servants, and at the same time we’ve advanced and strengthed the role of
women in the legal profession.”

During Schneider’s tenure, the office investigated and prosecuted several

high-profile civil and criminal cases, including:

● The filing of an anti-corruption and anti-fraud civil lawsuit

against the UAW, and a proposed consensual resolution to bring
independent oversight to the union and eliminate corruption
among its leadership;

● The largest investigation and prosecution of corrupt auto

company executives and UAW officials in American history,
which has thus far led to the convictions of 15 persons for fraud
and corruption crimes, including two UAW International
Presidents;

● The busiest docket of public corruption cases in the United

States, including fraud, bribery, and pay-to-play schemes
centering around corrupt public officials in Macomb County;

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 ● Obstruction of justice charges against Macomb County
Prosecuting Attorney Eric Smith for attempting to get a friend
and two assistant prosecutors to make false statements to federal
law enforcement officers and a federal Grand Jury;

● In coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western

District of Michigan, the investigation of six men who have been
charged federally with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor
Gretchen Whitmer;

● The country’s first indictment of a U.S. citizen who was arrested

on a battlefield in Syria while fighting in support of ISIS, a
designated foreign terrorist organization;

● The largest civil settlement in American history arising out of

unlawful drug diversion in a major health system, resulting in a
$7.75 million settlement payment by McLaren Health Care
Corporation; and

● The trial, conviction, and life sentence of a Canadian man who

stabbed and attempted to kill a Flint Bishop Airport police officer
in an act of violent jihad inspired by the ideology of Al Qaeda and
Osama bin Laden.

In April 2020, Attorney General William Barr named Schneider to lead a

nationwide effort to review state and local policies to ensure that civil liberties
remain protected during the COVID-19 pandemic. That effort resulted in
dozens of court victories and policy reforms across the country to preserve
Americans’ civil rights, including their right to worship and their right to be
free from arbitrary, irrational state restrictions.

On May 29, 2020, upon the Justice Department’s filing of a Statement of

Interest in a case challenging Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s
pandemic-related orders, Schneider stated, “As important as it is that we stay
safe during these challenging times, it is also important to remember that we
do not abandon our freedoms and our dedication to the rule of law in times of
emergency.”

Schneider, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and

Michigan State University’s James Madison College, had previously served as:
Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Michigan; Chief Legal Counsel
for the Michigan Department of Attorney General; Chief of Staff and General
Counsel for the Michigan Supreme Court; an Assistant United States Attorney;
Senior Advisor and Assistant General Counsel in the White House Budget
Office; and an attorney in private practice.

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