David Toepfer

President Donald Trump has nominated David Toepfer of Howland, an assistant U.S. attorney and former Trumbull County assistant prosecutor, to be the next U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

If confirmed by the Senate, Toepfer would be the first U.S. attorney from the Mahoning Valley in 117 years.

“I’m very honored to be nominated, and I look forward to the confirmation process,” Toepfer said.

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio is the chief federal prosecutor for the 40 counties that are in the district.

Toepfer said, “I have no idea how long it will take, but I’m trusting the process.”

One potential obstacle is U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who blocked the swift confirmation of a U.S. attorney nominee for Florida in May and said he was “leaving open the possibility of holds on future U.S. attorney nominees.”

Durbin said he was doing it because when Vice President JD Vance was a senator from Ohio he put holds on U.S. attorney nominations during the Joe Biden presidential administration in response to the second federal indictment of Donald Trump. The indictments were dropped after Trump, a Republican, was elected president.

Putting holds slows down the confirmation process, preventing the Senate from confirming through unanimous consent and requiring a roll call vote.

Toepfer passed the bar exam in October 1997 when he was working as a law clerk for the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office. He stayed there until going to work for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office in 1999, staying until 2008, when he was hired by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Toepfer praised Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, saying, “He was an amazing boss. I would not be here today if it wasn’t for Dennis Watkins.”

While working for Watkins, Toepfer successfully served as co-counsel on the 2005-06 capital murder trial of Jermaine McKinney, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing two people, as well as on the 1999-2000 capital murder trials of Scott Burrows and Mark Worley, convicted of killing a Hubbard Township couple. Burrows and Worley were sentenced to life in prison.

Toepfer serves as supervisor of the Youngstown and Akron branches of the U.S. attorney’s offices. He’s served as counsel on a number of high-profile federal cases, including those involving wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy and a $2.8 million food stamp fraud case involving 32 defendants.

Toepfer’s wife, Mary, said: “For a lot of people, this is a political appointment so it’s not often you get someone so uniquely qualified as a career prosecutor.”

Watkins said Toepfer was “an amazing employee,” and in his 41 years as county prosecutor “the success I have had can be measured by the people who served with me, and he is one of those great successes.”

Watkins said he’s not at all surprised that Toepfer was nominated because he is “eminently qualified” for the position.

“I’m very happy for him and the people of northern Ohio to have a person with that experience and ability” nominated as U.S. attorney, Watkins said.

FIRST SINCE 1908

If confirmed, Toepfer would be the first Valley resident to serve as U.S. attorney for the Northern District since John J. Sullivan, who spent nine years on the job from 1899 to 1908.

Sullivan, who moved to Trumbull County when he was 12, was a former Trumbull County prosecutor and state senator before being appointed U.S. attorney by President William McKinley, a Niles native. Sullivan was reappointed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 and 1906.

Toepfer would be the first confirmed U.S. attorney in the district to serve in the position since Justin Herdman, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed Aug. 3, 2017. He resigned Jan. 8, 2021, right before Biden, a Democrat, was sworn in as president.

U.S. attorneys typically resign when a new president from a different political party is elected.

Biden nominated Marisa T. Darden on Nov. 12, 2021, as U.S. attorney and she was confirmed April 27, 2022. But she withdrew her name from consideration on May 17, 2022, before taking office and returned to private practice.

Currently, the office is run by Carol Skutnik as acting U.S. attorney.