US Attorney Devillers submits resignation
David Devillers, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced Tuesday that he will resign from the post, effective at the end of the month.
The announcement came hours after federal officials, in a midday call, asked Devillers and other top federal prosecutors appointed by former President Donald Trump to step down from their positions to make way for planned replacements by President Joe Biden.
“I have been a prosecutor for my entire career, and it was my wish to remain a prosecutor until the end of my career, but that is not to be,” he said in a released statement. “… It has been the honor of my life to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. While it was my hope to continue on for a few more months to finish some of the work we have started, I am absolutely certain that the (assistant U.S. attorneys) and investigators working for the people of the Southern District of Ohio will bring this work to a successful and just closure.”
Such changeovers are routine for a new presidential administration. But Devillers’ oversight in public corruption cases entangling the Ohio House speaker and Cincinnati City Council members have raised his profile statewide and earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans.
Devillers, who has been in the post since November 2019, has known his departure was imminent, though he has remained on the job as federal officials consider potential replacements.
In an interview last month, he said, “I know they’re already looking at other people. I respect that. I haven’t been asked to stick around… I wish I could stay longer, but it is what it is. Now it’s my job to get the office in shape and into a position where the person’s who’s going to replace me is going to succeed.”
When he does step down, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel likely is in line to serve as acting head of the Southern District office, pending a new presidential appointment.
As the No. 2 post in the office, Patel already oversees day-to-day operations. According to biographical information compiled by the Southern District, Patel has been an assistant U.S. attorney for more than 20 years, initially in California and, since 2005, out of the Southern District’s office in Dayton. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton Law School.
Devillers is a longtime prosecutor and has worked in the Southern District office for nearly two decades.
During the little more than a year that he’s been U.S. attorney, Devillers has overseen a number of notable prosecutions, including a racketeering case against former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder and several others related to the enactment of House Bill 6 and alleged pay-to-play schemes involving members of Cincinnati City Council.
That’s in addition to the ongoing federal crackdown on MS-13 and other violent gangs and illegal firearms and drug trafficking cases that have frequented the Southern District docket in recent years.
Those cases will continue, headed by career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who will remain after Devillers’ departure.
“I am committed to support and assist whoever the president and Senate choose to permanently replace me to the best that I can,” Devillers said Tuesday afternoon. “I encourage that person to be just, apolitical, aggressive and impactful.”
Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge contributed.
mkovac@dispatch.com