On Wednesday, veteran prosecutor Nicholas J. Ganjei took the oath of office as the newest U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Texas. Alamdar Hamdani, a former appointee of former President Joe Biden, had previously occupied the position.
According to the district website, Ganjei will be in charge of 43 counties and a court system that serves nine million people across more than 44,000 square miles. Although the district’s headquarters are in Houston, where the new U.S. Attorney resides, it also includes courts in Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and Houston.
After resigning from his position as chief counsel to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), which he had held since 2023, Ganjei took the new position. Additionally, he served as counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to a Justice Department announcement on Wednesday, he previously served as the Eastern District of Texas’s Acting U.S. Attorney and First Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2020 to 2021.
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After Hamdani, the first Asian American to serve as U.S. attorney, resigned from his position on January 19, 2025, he took over from Jennifer Lowery, who had been serving in that capacity.
In a written statement to the media on Wednesday, Ganjei stated that the chance to serve the American people once more is a great privilege and a huge responsibility. This position will be crucial to maintaining the safety of the American people and securing our border.
The U.S. Department of Justice made the announcement Wednesday, just nine days after President Donald Trump took office and was supposed to designate a new head of the department. According to Hamdani, when a new political party takes control of the White House, federal prosecutors tend to change.
In an interview with the Houston Landing earlier this month, Hamdani stated, “We serve at the president’s pleasure.”
Ganjei hasn’t yet made it clear how his priorities in office will be different from his predecessor’s. Hamdani had praised his efforts to fight gang activity and violent crime prior to his departure on January 19, saying he was responsible for the 20% decrease in Houston’s murder rate in the year after his appointment.
Ganjei started his employment with the Department of Justice in 2008 after graduating from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. According to the statement on Wednesday, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney there, focusing on a variety of cases involving organized crime, immigration, drugs, and human trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ganjei was scheduled to give many seminars on judge nominations and the Supreme Court at the conservative Federalist Society in recent months. During the 2022–2023 academic year, he was also named a James Madison fellow at conservative Christian Hillsdale College, where, according to the program description, participants study and discuss issues like immigration, identity politics, American foreign policy, free speech, marriage and the family, political economy, and the rule of law.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Ganjei said, “I am excited to collaborate with some outstanding prosecutors, staff, and law enforcement partners.”
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