Miami U.S. Attorney, first Haitian-American in post, to resign before Trump takes office
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, a Haitian-American immigrant who became the first Black lawyer to serve in the most powerful federal law enforcement position in South Florida, announced his resignation on Monday after two years on the job.
Lapointe, expressing his gratitude for the privilege of serving the community, said that his resignation will take effect on Jan. 17, three days before Republican Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next president. In an announcement, he touched upon his personal history as a native of Haiti, the Caribbean country’s longstanding struggles, and growing up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood before joining the U.S. Marines and attending Florida State University on the journey to his high-profile law career.
Lapointe, 56, who assumed the U.S. Attorney’s position in January 2023 after being nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, presided over a post-COVID-19 office that cracked down on government loan scams, false Medicare claims and nursing-school diploma mills, as well as Venezuelan corruption, Ponzi schemes and developer Sergio Pino’s murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife.
However, one piece of unfinished business is the Miami federal trial of five men charged with conspiring in South Florida to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The case is set for trial next September — more than four years later after the assassination — though five other defendants pleaded guilty during Lapointe’s term and were sentenced to life in prison. A sixth was sentenced for nine years.
“Given where I started, it has been uniquely meaningful to hold a role so central to the Department of Justice’s mission of supporting our collective well-being through the exercise of the rule of law,” Lapointe said in the announcement released by his office.
In an interview with the Miami Herald on Tuesday, Lapointe declined to say what he hopes to do in the next chapter of his legal career.
Lapointe, who had previously worked two decades ago as a federal prosecutor in Miami and later as a partner in the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman before becoming the U.S. Attorney, said he really didn’t know his next move.
“I made a decision when I took this job that I wasn’t going to think about my next job,” Lapointe told the Herald. “I’m going to take the next month to decide what to do.”
When Lapointe steps down, he will be temporarily replaced by his first assistant, career federal prosecutor Michael Davis, who is best known playing a key role in the crackdown on Cocaine Cowboys Willie Falcon, Sal Magluta and dozens of their associates. Davis will eventually be replaced by a Trump nominee, most likely a lawyer with ties to the conservative Federalist Society, similar to the profile of Lapointe’s predecessor, Ariana Fajardo Orshan. She’s a former state prosecutor and current circuit court judge.
In his interview with the Herald, Lapointe credited the public service of about 250 prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, which extends from Key West to Fort Pierce. In particular, he highlighted the retirements of four prosecutors who collectively worked about 150 years in the office, focusing on fraud, corruption, drug-trafficking and immigration cases. They are Dexter Lee, Jeffrey Kaplan, Paul Schwartz and Joan Silverstein. Of the four, Silverstein is the only one who plans to continue practicing law, joining her husband Dan Gelber at Gelber Schachter Greenberg in Miami. (Gelber is a former mayor of Miami Beach and served in the state Legislature.)
Additionally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Schall, who has served as the office’s public information officer during Lapointe’s tenure, plans to resign and start teaching pre-law at the American Heritage preparatory school in Delray Beach.
Lapointe said that as he departs the office, he is left with the strong impression of public service by hundreds of lawyers and assistants, especially those who devoted their career to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“I’ve been able to see how much people give of themselves to protect the homeland through their work,” he said.
Mass resignation
Mass resignations from the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices are commonplace, especially when one president taking power comes from a different political party than the incumbent one.
A longtime observer of presidential appointments of U.S. attorneys and federal judges said Lapointe’s replacement is unclear at this point — but it will be Trump’s call. There is no longer an advisory board in South Florida recommending candidates for U.S. attorney to Florida’s two Republican senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who were major supporters of Lapointe. Trump recently announced his intention to appoint Rubio to his cabinet as secretary of state.
Miami defense attorney Jon Sale, who has sat on judicial advisory boards in the past, credited Lapointe with bringing a steady hand to running the office and recruiting new talent as prosecutors.
Sale said he also appreciated that Lapointe adopted his proposal to convene a committee of public defenders, private defense attorneys, federal prosecutors and supervisors to discuss regularly “how to make the justice system work better.”
Sale said the committee focused on improving the handling of indigent cases, which make up the majority of defendants in the federal system, including “meaningful” pre-trial diversion programs as a substitute for prison time.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 12:40 PM.
