Joliet native, John Lausch leaving U.S. Attorney’s office

Northern Illinois U.S. Attorney John Lausch, a native of Joliet, is leaving the position.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday said that Lausch plans to leave in “early 2023″ while announcing the appointment of a special counsel, U.S. Attorney for Maryland Robert Hur, to take over the investigation into classified documents found in President Biden’s former office.

Lausch had led the initial investigation into the discovery of classified documents, which also have turned up in the garage of the president’s home in Delaware, and has recommended the appointment of a special counsel to look deeper into the matter, Garland said.

But Lausch informed him when he took the assignment that he could not stay long because he planned to leave his position as U.S. Attorney to work in the private sector, Garland said.

No date for Lausch’s departure was announced, and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago did not return a call for comment. Garland only said that Lausch had informed him that he planned to leave in “early 2023.”

Lausch was assigned to lead the initial investigation into the classified documents in November.

Lausch, a Joliet Catholic Academy graduate and a linebacker for the high school’s 1987 state championship football team, was named U.S. Attorney in 2017.

His plan to leave as U.S. Attorney was not expected.

Despite being a Trump appointee, Lausch was kept on the job by President Biden at the urging of Illinois two Democratic senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and others in Illinois.

Biden had planned to fire Lausch and replace him with his own appointee as he was doing with others who headed U.S. Attorney district offices across the nation.

But Illinois Democrats and Republicans spoke up in Lausch’s favor, largely because of the investigation his office launched into former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has been indicted but is still awaiting trial on charges in an alleged bribery scheme.

Durbin and Duckworth noted a precedent of keeping U.S. Attorneys heading sensitive investigations in office during a change in presidential administrations.

Pat Cardwell, a retired Joliet police sergeant and longtime friend of Lausch’s, said the two of them “never talk shop” but he had no inkling that Lausch intended to leave his position.

“It was a shock to me just as it was for everyone else,” Cardwell said.

Lausch’s mother lives in Joliet.

Lausch has not lived in Joliet for years, although more than 20 protesters thought he did a year ago when they showed up in a Joliet neighborhood. The protesters from Chicago thought they were demonstrating near Lausch’s home as the called for him to file federal charges against Jason Van Dyke, the former Chicago police officer who was being released from state prison after serving a portion of his prison sentence for the fatal on-duty shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Although he does not live in Joliet, Lausch does retain ties to family and friends. In May 2021, he came to Joliet to speak at the 40th annual Law Enforcement Memorial outside the Will County Courthouse.

Garland said during a news conference Thursday that he appointed Lausch to head up the initial investigation into the classified documents “confident his experience would ensure it would be done professionally and expediently.”

Lausch stood next to Garland at the conference as his boss announced that Lausch would be leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office. Lausch did not speak, and Garland left without taking questions from reporters.

Garland commended Lausch and his staff for the initial investigation into the classified documents saying it was done with “professionalism and speed. I am grateful to them.”

Lausch had been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Chicago office from 1999 to 2010 before leaving for private practice.