United States Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery said she will resign from the office this month.
President Joe Biden appointed Avery as the 54th U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut and she was sworn in on May 9, 2022.
Her resignation goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 17, three days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as United States Attorney, and I am profoundly appreciative of President Biden for trusting me to serve our nation and the people of Connecticut in this position,” Avery said in a statement.
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Marc H. Silverman, who has served as First Assistant U.S. Attorney since May 2024, will serve as Acting U.S. Attorney.
He joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2010 and served as Deputy Chief of the Office’s Appellate Division from 2014 to 2022 then he was Chief of the Criminal Division from 2022 to May 2024.
Silverman, a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, will be the 55th U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
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Avery also served as the Associate Attorney General and Chief of the Division of Enforcement and Public Protection at the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.
She previously served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division in this District, as a litigation attorney with McCarter & English LLP, as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division in Washington, D.C. and as an attorney in the Hartford Trial Group at Cummings & Lockwood LLC.
She is a graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center, according to her office.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is in excellent hands,” Avery said in a statement. “Marc and the Office’s superb supervisory team have the highest professional and ethical standards and, together with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners will ensure that the administration of justice will seamlessly continue in our District.”
U.S. Senator Ruchard Blumenthal released a statement after Avery announced her resignation.
“I regret, but fully understand, Vanessa Avery’s departure, and I am grateful for her dedicated, highly successful service as U.S. Attorney. Her leadership has been insightful and incisive – inspiring to her excellent team working to protect public safety and the rule of law. I hope to make recommendations, along with my colleague Senator Murphy, to President-elect Trump, based on merit and guided by our bipartisan selection committee,” Blumenthal said.
