Channing D. Phillips

Channing D. Phillips is the acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, serving since October 2015.

Phillips is the son of Channing E. Phillips, a minister and civil rights activist who became the first African-American to have his name placed in nomination for President of the United States by a major political party in 1968. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Phillips graduated from the University of Virginia in 1980 and the Howard University School of Law in 1986. In 1990, Phillips became a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division in the Organized Crime & Racketeering Section. In 1994, he moved to the United States Attorney's Office in D.C. In 2010, he returned to the Justice Department to serve in the Office of the Attorney General.

In 2015, after Ronald Machen's resignation as U.S. Attorney, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton recommended Phillips for the position. Phillips was nominated by President Obama to be the next U.S. Attorney on October 8, 2015, and designated acting U.S. Attorney on October 19, 2015. In December 2015, Phillips announced the closure of a long-running and controversial investigation into former Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who was not charged.

During the 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys, Phillips was not asked to resign because he had not yet been confirmed and remained acting U.S. Attorney. On June 12, 2017, President Trump nominated Jessie K. Liu to serve as U.S. Attorney. If she is confirmed, she will replace Phillips in the position.