The US attorney’s office in Washington, which has been buried in Jan. 6 insurrection cases, saw an opening to prioritize bolder white-collar enforcement, according to current and former Justice Department officials.

US Attorney Matthew Graves, a former acting chief of DC’s fraud section and Big Law corporate defense attorney, is expected to put more emphasis on combating economic misconduct such as crypto fraud, federal contracting schemes, and sanctions evasion, the officials say.

“Jan. 6 prosecutors have really taken all the office resources, to put it lightly, but now if there’s light at the end of the tunnel on those matters, I think you will see him shift his attention to the white-collar area,” said Ronald Machen , who chairs WilmerHale’s litigation and controversy department and as a former US attorney for DC supervised Graves.

Challenges remain for prosecutors in the largest of the Justice Department’s 94 US attorney’s offices even as they’re gradually relieved from the all-hands-on-deck mission of charging individuals who stormed the Capitol.

Hundreds more Jan. 6 cases are still pending and the office must navigate its unique role of prosecuting street crime in the nation’s capital while also pursuing sensitive national security and public corruption matters.

Balancing Act

It’s a balancing act Michael Sherwin confronted when then-Attorney General William Barr installed him as DC’s acting US attorney in 2020. The former financial prosecutor evaluated staffing and cases before determining the “fraud cases were woefully low.”

The emphasis was on public corruption, he said.

Sherwin was moved from a senior political role at Justice Department headquarters to the US attorney slot at a turbulent moment amid the prosecutors of Trump allies Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

In his early stages of trying to re-energize the white-collar practice, Jan. 6 happened.

“Things got sidetracked with Jan.