James M. McDonald

James Michael McDonald (born 1982) is an American attorney who has served as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York since 2026.

Early life and education (1982–2007) James Michael McDonald was born in 1982. McDonald's father was a founding partner at McDonald, McCann, Metcalf & Carwile, a law firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He graduated from Harvard University and from the University of Virginia School of Law with a Juris Doctor. He worked in the Office of White House Counsel as the deputy associate counsel in the Bush administration and as an associate at Williams & Connolly. He was involved in the prosecution of former New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2017–2020) In March 2017, J. Christopher Giancarlo, the acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, named McDonald as the director of the commission's enforcement division. He resigned in October 2020. After FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, declared bankruptcy, the company hired McDonald and Steven Peikin, the former co-director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, to investigate its collapse. In April 2023, Coinbase hired several former federal officials, including McDonald, in its defense against a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission. McDonald served as one of President Donald Trump's personal lawyers in his appeal to overturn his conviction in the hush-money case. He additionally represented Live Nation, Polymarket, and the billionaire Gautam Adani.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York After Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, as the director of national intelligence in June 2026, McDonald was among several possible candidates to succeed Clayton. On June 13, Trump announced that he would appoint McDonald to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. On July 8, Clayton appointed McDonald to serve as his deputy. On July 29, judges in the District Court for the Southern District of New York voted to appoint McDonald to succeed Clayton.