Rhode Island’s number two federal prosecutor is now the top one — for now.
Sara Miron Bloom is now Acting U.S. Attorney following the resignation of Zachary Cunha on Monday. She was previously First Assistant U.S. Attorney, a position she held since January 2022.
The change was announced without no fanfare, instead being briefly noted in a news release issued at 11:49 a.m. Wednesday announced that a Providence man had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Forty minutes later came a news release with Bloom announcing more than $9.9 million in criminal and civil actions collected in Fiscal Year 2024.
Bloom officially took over duties on Tuesday and will lead the office until President Donald Trump nominates a candidate for Senate approval, said office spokesperson Jim Martin.
Her interim promotion is in accordance with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which stipulates that the first assistant becomes the acting U.S. attorney. She replaces Cunha, who stepped down Monday at Trump’s direction after previously submitting a resignation letter indicating his intention to leave at the end of this week.
Cunha was tapped by former President Joe Biden in 2021 to lead the office on the 17th floor of the skyscraper at One Financial Plaza in Providence. He was the final U.S. attorney from New England to leave his post, after Maine’s US Attorney, Darcie McElwee, was fired earlier on Monday.
It is customary for incoming presidents to replace U.S. attorneys appointed by their predecessor. Bloom declined to comment on her interim role.
The District’s website still listed Cunha as the U.S. attorney as of Wednesday evening.
She was hired as Cunha’s number two after serving 25 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Massachusetts, according to the DOJ’s website. Bloom previously worked as a general litigation associate for the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow from 1989 to 1995. She also clerked for Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Keeton.
Bloom graduated from Swarthmore College in 1985 and received her law degree from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude, in 1988.
This article was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
