By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said on Monday he had chosen former terrorism prosecutor Sean Buckley to serve as his deputy.
Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is Republican President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is known for bringing high-profile financial crimes, terrorism and corruption cases.
It has also historically enjoyed an unusual degree of independence from the Justice Department compared with the 92 other federal prosecutors’ offices around the country.
Buckley was a prosecutor in the Southern District from 2009 through 2018, and served as co-chief of the office’s terrorism and international narcotics unit.
While a prosecutor, he brought charges against a Vietnamese man who pleaded guilty in 2016 to plotting to detonate an explosive in London’s Heathrow Airport, and secured the 2015 trial conviction of a top Osama bin Laden deputy in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
“He is deeply respected by the New York Bar and embodies the commitment to professionalism and the safety of the people of New York that runs through our Office,” Clayton said in a statement.
Since leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office, Buckley has worked as a partner at law firm Kobre & Kim. He represented Olivier Amar, a former executive at college financial aid startup Frank who was convicted of fraud at a trial in the Southern District in March.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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