Biden should retain Michael Sherwin, who served in Florida, to complete probe into Capitol riot | Opinion

Michael Sherwin, who prosecuted major federal cases in South Florida, is Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He now is leading the all-important investigation into the armed insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. President Biden should let him finish the job. Sherwin is the right person to complete the investigation into those alarming events

Sherwin is a career prosecutor, not a political figure. He is of the highest moral character and integrity. Couple these traits with his extraordinary background in counterterrorism and national security, and his deep commitment to the rule of law, and he is the ideal person to bring to justice those who threatened our democracy.

Sherwin has had a spectacular career. He was a U.S. naval intelligence officer with separate tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served more than 12 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, while intermittently acting as a special detail for the Department of State in Bagram, Afghanistan — a position to which he was appointed by then-Attorney General Eric Holder in the Obama administration.

I worked with Sherwin when he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami. I am witness to his knowledge, work ethic and integrity. Sherwin is highly respected by prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges for his talent and fairness in dealing with adversaries and with the courts. Sherwin’s career demonstrates that all his prosecutorial decisions have been made solely on facts and law without consideration of politics. He will follow the evidence wherever it leads, whether it incriminates extremists on the right or the left.

In Miami, Sherwin prosecuted countless complex cases and convicted major international drug traffickers, including top-tier members of the Medellin cartel. He also became chief of the district’s Health Care Fraud Section, where he supervised the largest healthcare strike force in the country. Under his leadership, the section in Miami led the U.S. Department of Justice in the number of healthcare-fraud indictments, trials and asset forfeitures. He was also the lead prosecutor in the first federal prosecution involving fraud against the government in the affordable-housing industry.

As a special attorney in Afghanistan, Sherwin assisted the Afghanistan Attorney General’s Office in terrorism cases and appeals before the specially convened Afghan judicial tribunal. Sherwin participated in the prosecution of top-tier Taliban and al Qaida leaders, suicide bombers, and terrorism financiers.

Sherwin was recruited to DOJ in Washington, D.C., not as a political appointee, but because of his expertise in counterintelligence. He had never met or spoken to former Attorney General William Barr until after he was working in Washington. Because of Sherwin’s expertise, Barr sent him to Pensacola to handle the investigation of the Naval Air Station shooting, involving an aviation student from Saudi Arabia who killed three U.S. sailors and injured several others in an act of terrorism. The investigation expanded to many other districts that did their own reviews under Sherwin’s supervision. He analyzed the shooter’s social media, ran down every lead, worked with the Saudi government and ultimately caused 21 additional Saudi cadets to be disenrolled and returned to Saudi Arabia.

The events at the Capitol were acts of domestic terrorism. Our democracy is, and remains, under siege. Images of thugs invading our Capitol with gallows and nooses, “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirts and Confederate flags, plus their attacks on Capitol police, shocked and disgusted all good Americans. What America and the world expect is a robust response from our criminal-justice system. Sherwin can, and will, provide that.

Judge Merrick Garland, poised to become the next U.S. attorney general, supervised the investigation of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as a federal prosecutor. Like the assault on the Capitol, it was a catastrophic act of domestic terrorism. It is fair to assume that he will appreciate Sherwin’s expertise in counterterrorism.

With Sherwin, politics will play no role. Sherwin will be guided by one principle in dealing with these criminals — charge those responsible with all offenses supported by the facts and the law, including sedition and capital murder, regardless of the offender’s ideology. This would include members of Congress if justified by the evidence.

These horrific events happened on Sherwin’s watch, and he has more than risen to the challenge. He spoke directly to the bad actors at the Capitol: “You will be charged, and you will be found.”

I know Sherwin. I know his reputation. I know he will proceed with determination and complete independence.. As former Attorney General Elliot Richardson said, reflecting on President Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973, “Ours will continue to be a government of laws and not men.” Sherwin will follow the laws unwaveringly. The American people will be well-served if he remains in office and sees this critical investigation to its conclusion by bringing all those culpable to justice.

Jon A. Sale is co-chair of the White Collar and Government Investigations Practice Group in the Miami office of Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel. He is also a former assistant Watergate prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney in Florida and New York.