The United States Attorney for Northern California was fired Wednesday as part of a Trump administration push to boot Biden-appointed prosecutors from the federal government.
Ismail J. Ramsey was replaced with Patrick Robbins, an assistant U.S. attorney who took office in 2023.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed Ramsey’s departure.
“I can confirm that Mr. Ramsey yesterday concluded his leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, during which time he oversaw the Office’s successful pursuit of correctional officers at the Bureau of Prisons for abusing their authority, civil rights violators, public corruption, trade secret theft, corporate fraudsters, fentanyl traffickers, and violent criminal organizations,” the office said in a statement.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
It is customary for incoming presidents to fire federal prosecutors, but they usually coordinate with the DOJ, Bloomberg reported. In this case, however, President Donald Trump fired U.S. attorneys without talking to the DOJ first.
“It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve as the U.S. Attorney in the community where I grew up,” Ramsey wrote in a statement Thursday. “I am humbled and grateful that President Biden gave me this opportunity.”
Before joining the U.S. attorney’s office, Ramsey was a partner at a Berkeley law firm and taught at the UC Berkeley law school.
San Francisco legal community leaders lauded Ramsey when he was nominated in 2022 — even though he represented Mohammed Nuru, the corrupt chief of the Department of Public Works, in court. Other lawyers described Ramsey as smart and aggressive.
Robbins has been an assistant U.S. attorney since 2023 and also between 1995 and 2004. During his first stint in the office, he led the investigation into the manipulation of California’s electricity markets by the Enron Corporation and other companies.
The Northern District encompasses the San Francisco Bay Area and stretches from Del Norte County in the north to Monterey County in the south.