U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is keeping Brad Schimel in charge of operations in the Eastern District of Wisconsin under a new title, after federal judges said they would not extend his time as interim U.S. attorney. Bondi named Schimel first assistant U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Milwaukee said he would continue overseeing district cases under that role.
The shift follows Bondi’s earlier appointment of Schimel in November to a 120-day interim term as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, headquartered in Milwaukee. Schimel’s interim term was set to expire Tuesday, according to a news release on the district’s website, and the Eastern District’s judges had earlier said March 10 that they decided not to extend him, which MSI previously reported in the developing chain about the decision not to extend his interim tenure.
After those developments, the Milwaukee U.S. attorney’s office announced Wednesday that Bondi had appointed Schimel first assistant U.S. attorney in Milwaukee. Schimel, described as a Republican, said in a statement that he was “grateful for this opportunity to serve the people of the Eastern District of Wisconsin,” and that “I will continue to work tirelessly to make the entire district safer and stronger.”
The AP report framed the decision as part of a wider federal pattern as the Senate’s confirmation process stalls. Interim, acting or first assistant U.S. attorneys are leading most of the country’s 94 federal judicial districts, the report said, with Senate Democrats delaying confirmation votes on President Donald Trump’s appointees. The report also cited a Justice Department list indicating that only 30 districts are currently led by U.S. attorneys who have been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Schimel previously served as the Waukesha County district attorney before winning election as Wisconsin attorney general in 2014, the report said. He lost a bid for a second term to Democrat Josh Kaul in 2018, and the report said outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker appointed him as a judge in Waukesha County afterward.
The report said Schimel ran for the state Supreme Court last spring and lost to liberal Susan Crawford, despite Trump’s endorsement and “millions in spending from billionaire Elon Musk.” In recent remarks, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said earlier this month that she opposed allowing Schimel to continue serving as interim U.S. attorney, describing him as 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.” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson called the Eastern District judges’ decision not to extend Schimel’s tenure “bizarre,” and the report said he had urged Bondi to keep Schimel in charge of the Milwaukee office.
The AP report did not describe any change in Schimel’s day-to-day responsibilities beyond the change in title, but it placed the move within a broader effort to maintain leadership continuity in federal prosecutions during a period of stalled confirmations.