The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that he will appoint lawyer James McDonald as prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, after reporting the day before that Jay Clayton, who until now held the position, will become the country's new Director of National Intelligence.

Trump made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform, noting that McDonald was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and served as director of regulatory compliance at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission during his first term.

“I am convinced that Jamie will achieve excellent results for our country, as he has the respect of our patriots in law enforcement, the legal community and the judiciary, and will collaborate fantastically with them,” the president wrote.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) handles high-profile cases such as that of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom it indicted last January on charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and crimes related to automatic weapons.

In addition, the SDNY is handling other cases related to drug trafficking, such as that of the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, or that of the former director of Bolivia's main anti-drug agency Maximiliano Dávila Pérez, sentenced in March to twenty-five years in prison.

This New York federal court also led the case against rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs and is handling the federal trial of Luigi Mangione, accused of shooting to death UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

McDonald will replace Jay Clayton on the court, nominated for the position of Director of National Intelligence, after the controversy generated by the proposed appointment of Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and heir to a fortune in real estate construction. EFE