# Dana Boente

Dana James Boente (/ˈbɛnteɪ/ Bent-Ë) (born February 7, 1954) is an American attorney who served as General Counsel of the FBI from January 2018 to 2020, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from September 2013 to January 2018, and as the Acting United States Attorney General from January to February 2017. He also served as acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice. On October 27, 2017, Boente announced he would resign from the Department of Justice after a successor is in place. On January 23, 2018, Boente was named general counsel to the FBI by the director Christopher A. Wray, filling the vacancy after James Baker's reassignment to another part of the bureau.

## Early life and education

Boente was born in Carlinville, Illinois in 1954 to James and Doris Boente. Boente received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 1976 from Saint Louis University and his Master of Business Administration in 1977. He then attended the Saint Louis University School of Law, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1982.

## Career

In 1982, Boente began his career as a law clerk for Chief U.S. District Judge J. Waldo Ackerman for the Central District of Illinois. In 1984, he joined the Tax Division's Criminal Section as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program. Boente became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Fraud Unit of the Eastern District of Virginia in 2001.
In December 2012, Boente was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a position he held until September 2013. He became the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia by virtue of the Vacancy Reform Act on September 23, 2013, and served in that position until December 15, 2015. In this role, he was involved in the sentencing of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen. He stated that, "No one is above the law... not a high public official, not even the highest public official [in Virginia]." McDonnell's conviction was unanimously overturned by the United States Supreme Court on June 27, 2016, with Chief Justice John Roberts declaring that McDonnell's actions as governor were "tawdry", but agreed that instructions to the jury in his case about what constitutes "official acts" were so broad, they could cover almost any action a public official takes. The Justice Department, against the wishes of Boente's office, decided not to re-try either McDonnell and dismissed all charges.
He was nominated on October 8, 2015, and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 2015, as the 60th U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and was confirmed by the United States Senate via voice vote on December 15, 2015. Boente was one of the 46 United States Attorneys ordered by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 10, 2017 to tender their resignation; Trump declined to accept his.
Boente was not in the line of succession of the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to Executive Order 13762 signed by President Barack Obama before leaving office. He was appointed by President Donald Trump as Acting Attorney General on January 30, 2017, after Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was dismissed by Trump earlier that evening. When Jeff Sessions was confirmed and sworn in as Attorney General on February 9, 2017, Boente became Acting Deputy Attorney General. Also on February 9, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13775 to replace Obama's EO, an action which modified the order of succession to add Boente to the list.
Sessions recused himself from all matters pertaining to American presidential campaigns because of revelations that he had communications with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 United States presidential election, Boente was designated to perform the functions of the Attorney General with respect to campaign issues until the permanent deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, was confirmed and sworn into office which took place on April 25, 2017.
On October 27, 2017 Boente announced his intention to resign as U.S. Attorney and as acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division; he said he would remain in the positions until a replacement is confirmed.
On January 23, 2018, Boente was named general counsel to the FBI by Director Christopher Wray, filling the vacancy after James Baker's reassignment to another part of the bureau.
On May 29, 2020, Boente resigned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, effective June 30.

## Personal life

Boente has lived in Northern Virginia since 1984.