#Brooklyn US attorney leaving for top role at Justice Department

Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donoghue is leaving his post at the Eastern District of New York for a high-level position at the Justice Department, his office said Thursday.

Donoghue will serve as top deputy to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

Since taking up the job in 2018, Donoghue’s team oversaw several convictions in trials that garnered global attention — including the prosecution of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman and Nxivm sex-cult founder Keith Raniere.

Donoghue informed his staff of his departure Thursday morning, Politico first reported.

A replacement was not immediately announced. Mark Lesko, the top assistant attorney in the office, would be first in line to serve as acting US attorney.

Under his new DOJ title — principal associate deputy attorney general — Donoghue is expected to work with the country’s 93 US attorneys and bridge communication from central Justice Department offices in Washington, D.C.

A U.S. Army veteran and graduate of St. John’s University School of Law, Donoghue joined the Eastern District in 2000, working first as an assistant US attorney for a decade, and at one point serving as chief of its criminal division.

His departure comes shortly after his counterpart in Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, was ousted.