DENVER – U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Jason R. Dunn will resign from his position at the end of this month, he announced Tuesday.
Dunn wrote in a letter to the White House Tuesday that he was honoring the request of Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson in submitting his resignation effective at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 28, though his resignation was expected, as U.S. attorneys are often replaced under new administrations.
“It has been the greatest honor of my professional life to serve as U.S. Attorney and to lead the outstanding employees of this office. We fought violent crime, drug cartels, and domestic terrorism, held accountable corporations and doctors for their careless distribution of opioids, and worked to better the lives of those in Indian Country,” Dunn wrote in the letter to President joe Biden. “In the end, Coloradans are safer for our work and I could not be more proud to have been part of this team. I wish you and your administration the best of luck and success going forward.”
Dunn elaborated on the accomplishments of himself and his office, as well as the challenges they faced, in a letter to Coloradans as well.
Matthew Kirsch, who is currently the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, will take over as Acting U.S. Attorney starting March 1 before the Senate confirms another nominee.
Dunn was nominated by former President Donald Trump and confirmed in October 2018. He replaced Bob Troyer as the U.S. Attorney for Colorado after Trump took office.
On Feb. 3, Colorado’s U.S. senators, Democrats Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, sent Biden a list of three people, one of whom they would like to see nominated as the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado: Kristin Bronson, Cole Finegan and Hetal Doshi.
Bronson has been city attorney under Denver Mayor Michael Hancock since 2016. Finegan is a managing partner at Denver-based law firm Hogan Lovells and formerly served as Hickenlooper chief of staff and Denver’s city attorney from 2003 to 2006. Doshi has been an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado since 2014 and previously served on the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force under the Obama administration.
The candidates will be reviewed by the administration before a nomination is made, and the senators’ recommendations often carry weight because the Senate will be tasked with confirming the nominees.