It’s common practice for new administrations, Republican or Democrat, to clean house, so to speak, and bring in their own U.S. attorneys, but the I-Team has learned that Fardon had hoped he’d be able to stay on at least for a few more months.
The 50-year-old Fardon took part in a news conference announcing a major drug sweep on Thursday. His office had been an active partner with the Chicago Police Department in battling gangs and drugs.
Fardon has been the top prosecutor for the northern district of Illinois since 2013 and his four-year term was up in October.
He was among those involved in crafting the agreement between the city of Chicago and the federal government to negotiate a consent decree to reform the CPD.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been critical of consent decrees for law enforcement, but legal observers say, as it relates to CPD, little is likely to change with Fardon’s departure.
“Whoever the U.S. attorney is, the dynamics would be the same, no one’s really sure what’s going to happen with the consent decree and the negotiations and the pending negotiations between the city and the DOJ,” said former Federal Prosecutor Jeff Cramer. “Ultimately it’s going to be the decision of the Attorney General, or his designate, to negotiate any consent decree.”
It’s worth noting that just because a U.S. attorney tenders his or her resignation does not mean the Dept. of Justice will accept that resignation. In the past, there have been a number of hold-overs from one administration to the other.
If Fardon is out, it’s unclear when that might happen and who will be named to take his place.
An acting U.S. attorney from within the office would likely serve in the interim.