New U.S. attorney for Chicago sworn in
After a year without one, Chicago finally has a new, permanent chief federal prosecutor.
A chief judge told lawyers at an unrelated status hearing Wednesday he’d just sworn in 47-year-old Zachary Fardon as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The prosecutor’s office soon after confirmed that.
Fardon once worked as an assistant prosecutor in the same office. And he alluded to that fact in a brief written statement Wednesday, saying he feels like he’s “back home.”
Fardon helped convict former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in 2006. He left a private Chicago law firm to take up his new, high-profile post where he now oversees around 300 employees.
He succeeds Patrick Fitzgerald, who resigned last year to enter private practice himself. Gary Shapiro served as interim U.S. Attorney.