Robert Khuzami, the deputy US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has overseen the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, is set to leave his post next month, the office announced Friday.
Khuzami, whose family lives in Washington, DC, has been commuting weekly from his home and is leaving for personal reasons, according to a person familiar with the matter. The office’s current chief counsel, Audrey Strauss, who had a role in the Cohen investigation, is set to replace Khuzami after his exit in mid-April, and will, in part, oversee the Cohen matter going forward, this person said.
Cohen pleaded guilty and is set to report to prison for a three-year sentence in May.
The Manhattan-based US attorney’s office, which charged Cohen last year, has ongoing investigations into an array of Trump-related matters, including whether any executives at the Trump Organization violated campaign-finance laws in the company’s effort to reimburse Cohen for payments he made to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump. He has repeatedly denied those claims.
Khuzami has been overseeing the Cohen case because the Manhattan US Attorney, Geoffrey Berman, was recused in that matter after it was referred to the office by special counsel Robert Mueller. Berman, however, hasn’t been rescued from the office’s other Trump-related investigations. His signature appeared on a subpoena the office sent in February to the Trump inaugural committee seeking a wide range of documents.
In addition to Khuzami’s departure, the office announced Friday that Craig Stewart, a partner with the law firm Arnold & Porter, will join the office as chief counsel.
Khuzami, who had been a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis before becoming deputy US Attorney and previously ran the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission, didn’t disclose his next steps.
CNN’S Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
