Federal judges in Milwaukee on Tuesday declined to extend interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel’s appointment, a move that sets up a handoff in the Eastern District of Wisconsin as the term approaches its scheduled end. Schimel’s interim appointment, made after Attorney General Pam Bondi named him in November, was due to expire March 17. Under federal law, district judges can extend interim U.S. attorney appointments until a permanent replacement takes office, but the judges said they would not do so in Schimel’s case.
In a statement posted on the Eastern District’s website, the judges said they did not intend the decision as any criticism of the interim attorney’s performance or qualifications. “In doing so, the Court intends no criticism or commentary on the performance or qualifications of the Interim United States Attorney or any of the attorneys in the United States Attorney’s Office,” the judges said. They added, “To the credit of that office, from the Court’s perspective, it has continued to represent the citizens of this district well.”
The judges said a majority declined to extend Schimel’s term beyond next week, and that they plan to wait for President Donald Trump and the U.S. Senate to nominate and confirm a full-time U.S. attorney for the district. Schimel, reached by phone, declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Schimel is a Republican. The AP reported that he earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and previously served as Waukesha County district attorney before winning election as Wisconsin attorney general in 2014. In 2018, he lost a bid for a second term to Democratic challenger Josh Kaul, and the AP said he later returned to the bench after outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker appointed him as a judge in Waukesha County.
The AP also reported that Schimel ran for the state Supreme Court last spring, with the court’s ideological balance at stake, and that he lost to Susan Crawford despite Trump’s endorsement and spending from billionaire Elon Musk. In Washington, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, said earlier this month that she opposed letting Schimel continue serving as interim U.S. attorney, calling him a partisan actor and saying, “getting the right person who will uphold the rule of law rather than pledge loyalty to the President, is more important than ever.”
During Schimel’s interim tenure, the AP reported that his office became involved in a federal case that sharpened political tensions over Trump’s immigration crackdown. In April, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was charged with helping an immigrant evade federal immigration officers who were trying to arrest him at the Milwaukee County courthouse. The AP said the episode inflamed the broader dispute between Trump’s administration and Democrats, with the administration branding Dugan an activist judge and Democrats arguing the prosecution aimed to set an example to blunt judicial opposition.
The AP reported that Schimel’s team later persuaded a jury to find Dugan guilty of obstruction in December. Dugan faces up to five years in prison, the AP said, and her sentencing has not been scheduled as her attorneys push for a new trial.