WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Kendra Wharton, a former member of President Donald Trump’s criminal defense team who serves as the Justice Department’s senior ethics official, plans to leave the department in July, she told Reuters.

Wharton replaced Bradley Weinsheimer, the department’s career designated ethics official who resigned in February after Justice Department leaders reassigned him along with about a dozen other senior lawyers to a newly created Sanctuary Cities Working Group.

Ethics Official Role and Responsibilities

The designated ethics official serves as a crucial gatekeeper who provides advice to department employees about potential conflicts of interest, including whether they should be recused from working on particular cases.

That role is also responsible for reviewing disciplinary recommendations by the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates attorney misconduct, and referrals for discipline or prosecution from the Office of the Inspector General.

A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Return to Private Practice

Wharton, who serves as Associate Deputy Attorney General, plans to return to private practice, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Prior to joining the department, she worked with now Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and the now Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to defend Trump against two federal indictments over Trump’s retention of classified records and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as against New York state charges alleging he falsified records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.

Trump was convicted of the state charges. Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped both federal indictments after Trump won the election in November due to the department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Broad Supervisory Duties

In addition to serving as the department’s ethics official, Wharton supervised several other DOJ components, including the Bureau of Prisons, the Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Parole Commission, the U.S. Trustee Program and the Justice Management Division.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Wharton, who first started working on Trump’s legal matters two years ago, has been commuting back and forth between Washington and her home in Florida, where she has two small children.

She will be returning to the law firm she founded in September 2023.

—

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)