A Mayor, a Rapper, a Senator, a Billionaire: Discover the Prosecutor Who Has Taken on Them All
Damian Williams serves as the leading federal prosecutor in Manhattan, and his track record of handling high-profile cases has led to speculation among legal experts regarding his future prospects.
TroibNews 
NEW YORK — In under a year, Damian Williams has taken on a powerful senator, a hip hop star, the mayor of the largest city in America, and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.
As the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Williams oversees the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office in the nation. Should Kamala Harris win the presidency, his recent performance may position him for a significant role within the Justice Department.
At the age of 44, Williams might be considered too young for the role of attorney general. However, many within Democratic legal circles recognize him as a prime candidate for deputy attorney general or to lead the criminal division of the Justice Department.
The attention surrounding Williams can be attributed to his reputation for bold investigative tactics and ambitious prosecutions, reminiscent of Harris's earlier career as a district attorney and California attorney general.
“His team has been far from shy when it comes to fairly muscular investigative steps like the execution of search warrants,” remarked Martin Bell, a former federal prosecutor from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office who is now a partner at Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP.
Recently, these strategies have resulted in a series of high-profile indictments and convictions that have shaken the New York legal landscape.
In just one week in September, Williams announced the indictments of Mayor Eric Adams for illegal foreign campaign contributions, wire fraud, and bribery, as well as multi-platinum rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The charges against Adams represent the first federal indictment of a sitting New York City mayor in modern history.
Just two weeks prior, Williams’ office — formally known as the Southern District of New York — charged two Russian officials from the Kremlin-supported media outlet RTN as part of a broader initiative to tackle Russian attempts to influence the upcoming 2024 election.
During the summer, his office achieved the convictions of two long-standing targets of the Justice Department: Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat found guilty of bribery, extortion, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt; and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire and Steve Bannon associate convicted of committing fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
This wave of cases followed the March sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried, a cryptocurrency leader involved in one of the most significant financial fraud cases in history, who is now serving a 25-year prison sentence.
This represents a substantial body of work, particularly by the standards of SDNY, which has a storied history of pursuing notable white-collar crimes.
“It has been a big fall and before that, with Menendez, a big year,” said Arlo Devlin-Brown, a former head of the public corruption unit in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office.
“When a U.S. attorney comes in, often a lot of the big investigations are things that are legacies of prior investigations that began before the person was a U.S. attorney,” Devlin-Brown, now a partner at Covington & Burling, noted. “But these are probably things that Damian had a hand in from the outset, so they really do sort of put a mark on his U.S. attorney-dom.”
Reflecting on his past, Williams, who was born in Brooklyn to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Atlanta, shared in a graduation speech at Columbia Law School last year that as a child he faced significant challenges, including a severe stutter. “When I took an IQ test to enroll in a school, I was told I was ‘borderline retarded.’”
“I still feel doubt in some way, shape or form every single day,” he added in the speech. “But now my doubt sits side-by-side with my confidence. My doubt grounds me. It checks me. It humbles me.”
Williams opted not to be interviewed for this article.
He later attended Harvard and Yale, and served as a clerk for former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. After nine years as a federal prosecutor, President Joe Biden appointed him U.S. attorney in 2021, making him the first Black person to lead SDNY.
Williams’ relative youth offers him the advantage of being closer to the experiences of current prosecutors, and colleagues assert he has capitalized on this.
Andrea Griswold, who was his deputy U.S. attorney until June and previously co-headed the office’s securities unit alongside Williams, remarked that their shared experiences particularly benefited them in the Bankman-Fried case. As Bankman-Fried was in the Bahamas at the time of his indictment, procuring his extradition to the United States became critical.
Griswold noted their past experiences with delayed extraditions informed their strategy. “So when it came to SBF, we knew how to do this,” she stated.
Historically, prior U.S. attorneys for Manhattan have leveraged the position as a stepping stone in their careers. Rudy Giuliani served for six years under Ronald Reagan before running for New York City mayor, while James Comey held the role for nearly two years under George W. Bush, subsequently becoming deputy attorney general and later director of the FBI.
Williams, however, displays a more understated demeanor than some of his predecessors. Known for his sharp suits and tortoise-shell glasses, one former colleague highlighted that he is “not a ‘look-at-me’ guy.”
Yet, with the high-stakes indictments of Adams and Combs making headlines, speculation is rife about Williams' future ambitions post-November.
A role in a possible Trump administration seems unlikely, as Williams does not fit the profile of a loyalist that Trump would seek for top Justice Department roles. However, should Harris defeat Trump, Williams appears to be a natural candidate for a position at Main Justice.
One contributing factor is his existing connections in D.C., which are arguably closer than those of many previous Southern District U.S. attorneys, according to one former office alumnus. Williams has forged ties with Attorney General Merrick Garland, having clerked for him during Garland's tenure as a federal appeals court judge; their relationship endures. Shortly after Williams was confirmed as U.S. attorney, Garland appointed him chair of the attorney general’s advisory committee.
As the election approaches, Williams' attention remains focused on local matters. In particular, the investigation surrounding Adams is ongoing, with Williams publicly stating his intent to pursue additional individuals connected to the case.
“This investigation continues. We continue to dig. And we will hold more people accountable," he stated. "And I encourage anyone with information to come forward, and to do so before it is too late.”
Williams' approach to the Adams case highlights a defining characteristic of his tenure: the proactive use of search warrants. This strategy is often employed ahead of criminal charges, even against well-known figures.
Last fall, federal agents confronted the mayor in public to execute a search warrant, seizing his electronic devices. And just hours before the charges against Adams were unsealed, agents executed a pre-dawn raid at the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion. Williams’ office has also carried out searches or seized phones belonging to at least nine high-ranking Adams associates.
In June 2022, more than a year prior to the charges against Menendez, FBI agents executed a search warrant at his home in New Jersey, where they confiscated gold bars accepted as bribes by the then-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Similarly, in March, six months before Combs faced charges, federal agents from Homeland Security arrived in armored vehicles to search his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
“At least historically, the decision to search someone’s phone or search someone’s home or office hasn’t simply been a matter of the technical determination of whether you think there’s probable cause,” Bell explained. “I think that prosecutors generally won’t pull that step unless they believe that there is vital evidence that could disappear otherwise, and it may be that they have become a little bolder about using search warrants, where in the past a subpoena may have done the trick.”
Amid a campaign season rife with claims of “election interference,” Williams has faced similar accusations; Adams has suggested that Williams and his team are attempting to undermine his reelection campaign.
Williams responded by telling reporters, “We are not focused on the right or the left. We are focused only on right and wrong.”
While two of Williams' most notable recent cases involve prominent Democrats, he has also pursued politicians from both parties, having previously been part of the team that secured a guilty plea from then-Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican, for insider trading.
Yet, the timing of the Adams indictment raises questions of political implications. Some former prosecutors have speculated that Williams may have timed the indictment to ensure a formal case existed should the next presidential administration decide against prosecuting the mayor. Generally, it is much harder to terminate a charged case under a federal judge’s oversight than to halt an investigation altogether.
Others believe the timing was simply coincidental. Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia Law School, suggested that the parallel timing of the Adams and Combs indictments likely stemmed from both cases being ready for charges simultaneously.
“But since so much of what the office does is going to be a function of how the public perceives it performing its work,” Richman added, “the coincidence is obviously very helpful to the office in establishing a profile of doing the big cases with attention and, it hopes, success.”
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
As the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Williams oversees the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office in the nation. Should Kamala Harris win the presidency, his recent performance may position him for a significant role within the Justice Department.
At the age of 44, Williams might be considered too young for the role of attorney general. However, many within Democratic legal circles recognize him as a prime candidate for deputy attorney general or to lead the criminal division of the Justice Department.
The attention surrounding Williams can be attributed to his reputation for bold investigative tactics and ambitious prosecutions, reminiscent of Harris's earlier career as a district attorney and California attorney general.
“His team has been far from shy when it comes to fairly muscular investigative steps like the execution of search warrants,” remarked Martin Bell, a former federal prosecutor from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office who is now a partner at Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP.
Recently, these strategies have resulted in a series of high-profile indictments and convictions that have shaken the New York legal landscape.
In just one week in September, Williams announced the indictments of Mayor Eric Adams for illegal foreign campaign contributions, wire fraud, and bribery, as well as multi-platinum rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The charges against Adams represent the first federal indictment of a sitting New York City mayor in modern history.
Just two weeks prior, Williams’ office — formally known as the Southern District of New York — charged two Russian officials from the Kremlin-supported media outlet RTN as part of a broader initiative to tackle Russian attempts to influence the upcoming 2024 election.
During the summer, his office achieved the convictions of two long-standing targets of the Justice Department: Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat found guilty of bribery, extortion, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt; and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire and Steve Bannon associate convicted of committing fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
This wave of cases followed the March sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried, a cryptocurrency leader involved in one of the most significant financial fraud cases in history, who is now serving a 25-year prison sentence.
This represents a substantial body of work, particularly by the standards of SDNY, which has a storied history of pursuing notable white-collar crimes.
“It has been a big fall and before that, with Menendez, a big year,” said Arlo Devlin-Brown, a former head of the public corruption unit in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office.
“When a U.S. attorney comes in, often a lot of the big investigations are things that are legacies of prior investigations that began before the person was a U.S. attorney,” Devlin-Brown, now a partner at Covington & Burling, noted. “But these are probably things that Damian had a hand in from the outset, so they really do sort of put a mark on his U.S. attorney-dom.”
Reflecting on his past, Williams, who was born in Brooklyn to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Atlanta, shared in a graduation speech at Columbia Law School last year that as a child he faced significant challenges, including a severe stutter. “When I took an IQ test to enroll in a school, I was told I was ‘borderline retarded.’”
“I still feel doubt in some way, shape or form every single day,” he added in the speech. “But now my doubt sits side-by-side with my confidence. My doubt grounds me. It checks me. It humbles me.”
Williams opted not to be interviewed for this article.
He later attended Harvard and Yale, and served as a clerk for former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. After nine years as a federal prosecutor, President Joe Biden appointed him U.S. attorney in 2021, making him the first Black person to lead SDNY.
Williams’ relative youth offers him the advantage of being closer to the experiences of current prosecutors, and colleagues assert he has capitalized on this.
Andrea Griswold, who was his deputy U.S. attorney until June and previously co-headed the office’s securities unit alongside Williams, remarked that their shared experiences particularly benefited them in the Bankman-Fried case. As Bankman-Fried was in the Bahamas at the time of his indictment, procuring his extradition to the United States became critical.
Griswold noted their past experiences with delayed extraditions informed their strategy. “So when it came to SBF, we knew how to do this,” she stated.
Historically, prior U.S. attorneys for Manhattan have leveraged the position as a stepping stone in their careers. Rudy Giuliani served for six years under Ronald Reagan before running for New York City mayor, while James Comey held the role for nearly two years under George W. Bush, subsequently becoming deputy attorney general and later director of the FBI.
Williams, however, displays a more understated demeanor than some of his predecessors. Known for his sharp suits and tortoise-shell glasses, one former colleague highlighted that he is “not a ‘look-at-me’ guy.”
Yet, with the high-stakes indictments of Adams and Combs making headlines, speculation is rife about Williams' future ambitions post-November.
A role in a possible Trump administration seems unlikely, as Williams does not fit the profile of a loyalist that Trump would seek for top Justice Department roles. However, should Harris defeat Trump, Williams appears to be a natural candidate for a position at Main Justice.
One contributing factor is his existing connections in D.C., which are arguably closer than those of many previous Southern District U.S. attorneys, according to one former office alumnus. Williams has forged ties with Attorney General Merrick Garland, having clerked for him during Garland's tenure as a federal appeals court judge; their relationship endures. Shortly after Williams was confirmed as U.S. attorney, Garland appointed him chair of the attorney general’s advisory committee.
As the election approaches, Williams' attention remains focused on local matters. In particular, the investigation surrounding Adams is ongoing, with Williams publicly stating his intent to pursue additional individuals connected to the case.
“This investigation continues. We continue to dig. And we will hold more people accountable," he stated. "And I encourage anyone with information to come forward, and to do so before it is too late.”
Williams' approach to the Adams case highlights a defining characteristic of his tenure: the proactive use of search warrants. This strategy is often employed ahead of criminal charges, even against well-known figures.
Last fall, federal agents confronted the mayor in public to execute a search warrant, seizing his electronic devices. And just hours before the charges against Adams were unsealed, agents executed a pre-dawn raid at the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion. Williams’ office has also carried out searches or seized phones belonging to at least nine high-ranking Adams associates.
In June 2022, more than a year prior to the charges against Menendez, FBI agents executed a search warrant at his home in New Jersey, where they confiscated gold bars accepted as bribes by the then-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Similarly, in March, six months before Combs faced charges, federal agents from Homeland Security arrived in armored vehicles to search his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
“At least historically, the decision to search someone’s phone or search someone’s home or office hasn’t simply been a matter of the technical determination of whether you think there’s probable cause,” Bell explained. “I think that prosecutors generally won’t pull that step unless they believe that there is vital evidence that could disappear otherwise, and it may be that they have become a little bolder about using search warrants, where in the past a subpoena may have done the trick.”
Amid a campaign season rife with claims of “election interference,” Williams has faced similar accusations; Adams has suggested that Williams and his team are attempting to undermine his reelection campaign.
Williams responded by telling reporters, “We are not focused on the right or the left. We are focused only on right and wrong.”
While two of Williams' most notable recent cases involve prominent Democrats, he has also pursued politicians from both parties, having previously been part of the team that secured a guilty plea from then-Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican, for insider trading.
Yet, the timing of the Adams indictment raises questions of political implications. Some former prosecutors have speculated that Williams may have timed the indictment to ensure a formal case existed should the next presidential administration decide against prosecuting the mayor. Generally, it is much harder to terminate a charged case under a federal judge’s oversight than to halt an investigation altogether.
Others believe the timing was simply coincidental. Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia Law School, suggested that the parallel timing of the Adams and Combs indictments likely stemmed from both cases being ready for charges simultaneously.
“But since so much of what the office does is going to be a function of how the public perceives it performing its work,” Richman added, “the coincidence is obviously very helpful to the office in establishing a profile of doing the big cases with attention and, it hopes, success.”
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
