OHIO — The White House announced Thursday nine nominees to fill U.S. attorney positions across the country, and it includes Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio. 

What You Need To Know

  • Parker has served as the assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio since 1999

  • If given the position, he would oversee the $61 million bribery case involving former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder

  • President Joe Biden has now nominated 25 people to fill U.S. attorney positions nationwide

Since 1999, Parker has served as the assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. Parker received his J.D. from Indiana University School of Law and his B.S. from Tuskegee University. 

From 2003 to 2005, he served as an adjunct professor of federal criminal practice at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Then from 2010 to 2011, he was chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Then from 2011 to 2019, he served as chief of the Criminal Division from 2011 to 2019.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vipal Patel has filled the position for the Southern District since March after U.S. Attorney David DeVillers left the post. 

If given the position, Parker would have to oversee the federal corruption case of the $61 million bribery scandal involving former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder as well as other investigations at the Ohio Statehouse. 

The nominations also include federal prosecutors’ offices in Hawaii, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Colorado, Vermont and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They would include several historic firsts, including the first Black female attorneys to lead their districts, the Biden administration said. To read more about the candidates for the positions, click here. 

The Justice Department’s 93 U.S. attorneys, who are responsible for federal criminal prosecutions in their respective districts, are central to the Biden administration’s efforts to combat violent crime.

The candidates were “chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” the White House said.

In total, the president has announced 25 nominees to serve as U.S. attorneys. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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