There is another first in the Biden administration – Pakistan-born Saima Mohsin is set to become the first Muslim woman federal prosecutor after she was named as the acting US attorney for Michigan’s Eastern District.
The other firsts in the Biden administration are Kamala Harris, the first woman and first South Asian American to become vice president, and Lloyd Austin first Black American defence secretary.
The Biden administration appointed Ms Mohsin as the acting US attorney for Michigan’s Eastern District last week.
She will take charge on February 1, as prosecutor Matthew Schneider’s will be effective on that day. He resigned shortly after President Biden took over the presidency.
The US Justice Department said that Mohsin will “immediately assume office as Acting United States Attorney” under the Vacancies Reform Act.
Ms Mohsin has been serving as the First Assistant United States Attorney since March 2018.
“She is a career prosecutor, having served in the US Attorney’s Office since 2002, and prior to that as a Deputy New Jersey Attorney General and an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan,” said the Justice Department.
Ms Mohsin has called her appointment a “great honour”.
“I am deeply committed to fulfilling our core mission to faithfully enforce the law and seek justice for all,” she was quoted in the press release.
Ms Mohsin is a graduate of the Rutgers University in New Jersey where she earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree.
Outgoing attorney Schneider said in a message that he was pleased to leave the US Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Michigan in Mohsin’s hands, who he called “one of the finest federal prosecutors” he’s ever known.
The position of acting US attorney, for which Ms Mohsin has been named, is not a permanent one and US laws allow judges to select an interim US Attorney.
