Federal judges in the Southern District of Georgia have voted to continue Margaret “Meg” Heap as the district’s Savannah-based U.S. attorney, removing her “interim” status following her appointment by the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi early this year.
The decision bypasses a potentially thorny Constitutional problem that other states have grappled with during the second presidency of Donald Trump whereby the White House has largely ignored the Senate confirmation process for U.S. attorney candidates and instead appointed friends and allies of the president to these powerful jobs.
Heap, the first woman ever to serve as Chatham County’s district attorney, won the approval of the federal district judges to continue serving as the top federal law enforcement official in the Southern District, which covers 43 of Georgia’s 159 counties — including Augusta, Savannah and Brunswick — and a population of more than 1.6 million people. She took the oath of office Monday from the Southern District’s chief judge, R. Stan Baker.
Bondi named Heap the Southern District’s interim federal prosecutor on Aug. 18, sidestepping the confirmation process and starting the clock on her 120-day appointment, which was due to expire this week.
There are 93 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country, charged with enforcing federal law and representing the United States in federal courts. The U.S. attorney’s powers include the ability to start a criminal prosecution by filing a complaint or by requesting a grand jury indictment. They are appointed to four-year terms through presidential nomination and Senate confirmation.
When President Trump took office in January, however, he sought to bypass the confirmation process by appointing several lawyers that used to work for him in a personal capacity, raising worries of a Constitutional crisis or a weaponization of the federal legal system against the president’s perceived enemies.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba was disqualified from serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor despite his administration’s maneuvers to keep her in the role beyond the strict time limits of an interim appointment.
Another federal judge dismissed criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after concluding that the hastily installed prosecutor who filed the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed to the position of interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Justice Department has said it intends to appeal the rulings.
In Georgia, the situation has been less controversial. In the absence of any Senate confirmation hearings, U.S. judges in the federal court system can approve their own candidate to prosecute cases.
In September, the judges presiding in the U.S. District of Northern Georgia voted to keep the man given an interim appointment by the Trump administration, Theodore Hertzberg.
The same occurred with Heap.
“The excellent staff in the Southern District of Georgia and our outstanding law enforcement partners continue to work together to keep our communities safe,” Heap said in a statement announcing her prolonged tenure as U.S. Attorney. “I am honored to serve alongside these dedicated professionals on behalf of our citizens as we work together to uphold the law and defend access to justice throughout this district.”
The former DA for Chatham County who was raised in Savannah and attended St. Vincent’s Academy and Georgia Southern University has a strong reputation as a victims’ advocate. She was appointed to Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Parole by Gov. Brian Kemp after she lost her bid for re-election in 2020.
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