Damian Williams, the US attorney for Manhattan, announced that he plans to step down on December 13 and will be temporarily replaced by his deputy Edward Kim. After Trump was elected president on November 5, he announced that he would nominate Jay Clayton, the former chairperson of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), to run the Manhattan prosecutor's office. The Southern District of New York is known as a sovereign district because of its independence and has handled many high-profile financial fraud cases. During Williams' tenure, he completed the prosecution of SBF, the founder of the former cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and Bill Hwang, the founder of the family office Archegos.