James R. McHenry III is Chief Administrative Hearing Officer in the U.S. Department of Justice.^[1] He has been serving as the acting U.S. Attorney General since January 20, 2025,^[2] when he was appointed by President Trump to temporarily fill the spot until Trump's nominee, Pam Bondi is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.^[3]

McHenry earned a B.S. degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and an M.A. in political science and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University.^[2][4]

He started at the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, serving as a Judicial Law Clerk and later Attorney Advisor at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). He then was a senior lawyer in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and served a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Criminal Division in the Northern District of Georgia. During 2014–2016, he was an administrative law judge in the Social Security Administration.^[2]

During the first Trump administration, McHenry was Director of EOIR, first on an acting basis starting in 2017, and then permanently the following year.^[1][2][5] He then became EOIR's Chief Administrative Hearing Officer in January 2021, at the beginning of the Biden administration.^[3][4][5]