President nominates two for top federal prosecutors in Iowa’s northern, southern districts

President Joe Biden has nominated a former prosecutor and a defense attorney for the top federal prosecutor jobs in Iowa’s Northern and Southern districts, which have been without permanent leaders since 2021.

The White House announced Wednesday that Biden has nominated Matthew L. Gannon, a former assistant Iowa attorney general, as the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. The district includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Fort Dodge and Sioux City.

Biden’s nomination for U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Iowa is David C. Waterman, an attorney with Lane and Waterman in Davenport. The district includes Davenport, Des Moines and Council Bluffs.

Both nominees were endorsed last year by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member and former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

“I am confident both of these highly qualified individuals will faithfully serve the people of Iowa and I urge my colleagues to move the nominations forward without delay,” Grassley said in a statement Wednesday.

U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. Biden over his three years in office has been slow to make those nominations. The vacant positions across the country were temporarily filled by acting federal prosecutors who were eventually appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to lead the office until a presidential nomination was made.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District Tim Duax was appointed by the justice department in 2022 and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Richard Westphal was appointed in 2021.

Biden with Wednesday’s announcement of the Iowa attorneys has now nominated 76 of the 93 U.S. attorney positions.

Northern District nominee

Matthew Gannon served as first assistant attorney general for former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller from 2021 to 2023. He resigned when Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was elected.

Gannon was an assistant attorney general from 2007 to 2021 and led the Tobacco Enforcement Program for the office and handled election-related law issues.

Before joining the attorney general’s office, Gannon worked in private practice as an associate with Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C., from 1998 to 2007. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1998 and his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1994.

“He’s an excellent choice for the Northern District,” former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller told The Gazette Wednesday. “I’m so delighted about this.”

Gannon has “enormous ability, is smart, capable and has integrity,” Miller said. He also has good judgment for a position like this to balance “enforcing the law and being fair.”

“He is a great pick,” Lynn Hicks, former colleague of Gannon’s in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, said. “He was a great colleague and just well respected across the political spectrum. He will make a great U.S. attorney with his strong background in legal issues.”

Gannon followed Miller’s practice of “doing the right thing and put the law and people over politics,” Hicks added.

Gordon Fischer, a Cedar Rapids lawyer who has known Gannon and his family for more than 20 years, said he is a “wonderful person and lawyer. He’s honest, open and a caring person.”

Fischer became friends with Gannon through politics and the Iowa State Bar Association. Gannon’s father, William J. Gannon, was a farmer in Jasper County and state representative from 1965-71, he added.

Southern District nominee

Waterman is a fifth-generation lawyer with Lane and Waterman in Davenport. His father, Bob Waterman, a former president of the Iowa State Bar Association, and his uncle, Iowa Supreme Court Associate Justice Thomas Waterman, also worked at the law firm. His practice areas since joining the law firm in 2020 included civil litigation, white collar crimes, government regulatory and compliance and appeals.

Waterman was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida from 2016 to 2020. He served as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Judge Michael Melloy from 2015 to 2016; former U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett from 2014 to 2015; and U.S. District Judge John Jarvey from 2013 to 2014.

Waterman received his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, in 2013, and his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from George Washington University in 2009.

“He is brilliant and has an unbelievable work ethic,” former U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett said Wednesday about his former law clerk. “He is also gracious, kind, modest and humble.”

Bennett, who is now the director of the Institute of Justice Reform and Innovation with Drake University Law School, said he has maintained a close relationship with Waterman over the years and knows he will be well suited for this position. He said Waterman is decisive but will be open minded and consider all viewpoints.

Guy Cook, a Des Moines lawyer who practices in the northern district, said he credits Grassley for working closely with the White House Counsel’s Office on the “distinguished” nominations.

“Both Gannon and Waterman are immensely qualified,” Cook said. “They both have significant real life prosecutor experience not always found in political appointees. Gannon and Waterman will be first-rate public servants.”

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