James McHenry

James Ridley McHenry III is an American lawyer who is the chief administrative hearing officer in the United States Department of Justice. He served as acting United States Attorney General from January 20 to February 5, 2025. He was appointed by President Donald Trump to temporarily fill the spot until Trump's nominee, Pam Bondi, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Education and career McHenry earned a BS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and both a JD and MA in political science from Vanderbilt University.

He started at the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, serving as a judicial law clerk and later attorney advisor at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). He then was a senior lawyer in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and served a detail as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Criminal Division in the Northern District of Georgia. During 2014–2016, he was an administrative law judge in the Social Security Administration. He then became EOIR's chief administrative hearing officer in January 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration.