Nominees Wheeler, Mildred ready to serve as U.S. Attorneys in Indiana

After serving in several senior roles across the federal government, Tom Wheeler II wanted to come back to Indiana and put his decades of legal knowledge and experience to good use.

Adam Mildred, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Allen County, is looking forward to work that allows him to help keep the nation safe and protect civil rights.

Wheeler and Mildred were nominated by President Donald Trump in June to serve as Indiana’s Southern and Northern District U.S. Attorneys, respectively.

Both posts require U.S. Senate confirmation, and Wheeler will serve as acting U.S. Attorney in the Southern District in the interim while his nomination is pending.

Wheeler told The Indiana Lawyer he viewed being a U.S. Attorney, if he is confirmed, as a great opportunity and a position where he could carry out Trump’s emphasis on prosecuting violent and drug-related crimes.

“The mission is important to me. Law enforcement and safety is near and dear to my heart,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler served as Acting General Counsel at the Department of Education and has also held federal roles as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, Senior Advisor to the White House School Safety Commission, and Counsel to the Secretary of Education.

Mildred has years of prosecutorial experience and is the former chief deputy prosecutor in Noble County.

In a statement to The Lawyer, Mildred said he was grateful to Trump for the nomination and if confirmed would work vigorously to enforce the nation’s laws.

“I will work to help keep our nation safe and protect our civil rights. If confirmed, I will work with our federal agencies and law enforcement partners to help make the Northern District a safe place to work and raise a family,” Mildred said.

Wheeler touts bipartisan relationships

The nominations are part of a new president’s customary moves to name new federal prosecutors across the country.

Zachary Myers and Clifford Johnson served as Indiana’s Southern and Northern District U.S. Attorneys during the Biden Administration and tendered their resignations days before Trump’s inauguration in January.

Wheeler has also been part of the Trump administration’s inter-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, a group the Justice Department said in February was created to stop the harassment of Jewish students in schools and on college campuses.

Before returning to government, Wheeler was a partner at Bose McKinney & Evans LLP in Indianapolis, where he represented federal, state, and local public entities.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and a J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Wheeler said he’s spent a lot of time in his career focused on law enforcement and education. He noted that he also served as general counsel for the National Sheriffs’ Association and had been involved in a lot of campaign and election law.

He said he counts former Vice President Mike Pence as a client and close friend.

His time at the Justice Department and his various legal roles have prepared him for being a U.S. Attorney, Wheeler said, a job which he feels the biggest task is working with state and local officials in a unified approach.

Wheeler stressed that he’s always worked across the political aisle and has built up relationships with Democratic leaders across the state, including Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and a host of other law enforcement and political figures.

“I have the ability to pull people together,” Wheeler said, adding that a U.S. Attorney is a political appointment but “law enforcement is not political.”

Wheeler said, if confirmed, he wants to look at staffing levels and will also place an emphasis on curbing human/sex/migrant labor trafficking in the district.

He said another point of emphasis for him would be cracking down on government procurement fraud.

Mildred described as veteran prosecutor

According to U.S. Senator Jim Banks’ office, Mildred is a veteran Indiana prosecutor and has prosecuted more than 200 cases, including trials involving homicide, robbery, drug trafficking, and federal firearms offenses.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

His LinkedIn page lists him as an executive board member with the Indiana Association of Certified Accident Investigators.

Mildred has served as Allen County deputy prosecuting attorney since February 2021.

In Noble County, he was also assigned to the county’s drug and veteran’s courts and served as a special prosecuting attorney.

Senate confirmation expected

John Collins, an associate professor at George Washington University Law School, said in an email that he wasn’t tool familiar with Wheeler or Mildred.

But Collins added that, given that Indiana has two Republican senators, he didn’t expect any hiccups in either nominee’s confirmation process.

“Barring any real skeletons in their closets, they’ll probably be confirmed sometime after the August recess,” Collins said.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor, echoed Collins’ statement and expects the process to go smoothly, absent any unforeseen red flags raised by Senate Judiciary staff during background checks.

Tobias said he tracks U.S. Attorney nominees throughout the U.S.

Nominees generally have a mix of experience, with some working for big private firms, on the federal level or working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Other nominees, like Mildred, possess more experience on a state or local level.

“I think prosecutorial experience is valuable, to be sure, or some sort of criminal work,” Tobias said.

Tobias said someone who has done criminal work at the state level can also do well at the federal level.

Wheeler’s and Mildred’s nominations will be sent to both Republican and Democratic staffers of Senate Judiciary Committee members, Tobias said.

Tobias said Judiciary staffers will research both nominees and make recommendations to senators on the committee.

The Richmond law professor said he thinks there will be a committee vote on Wheeler and Mildred after the August recess.

One obstacle that could slow a final confirmation vote for the nominees before the full Senate is Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

Durbin announced May 22 he was putting a hold on the nomination of Jason Reding Quiñones to be a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Courthouse News Service reported Durbin suggested that he might expand the blockade to future appointments, which could establish a new precedent where U.S. attorney nominations would be subject to full floor consideration and a roll call vote rather than the expedited process seen in the past.

Durbin cited then-Ohio Senator JD Vance’s one-man hold on all of the former President Joe Biden’s federal prosecutor appointments.

The news service reported Vance said at the time that his blockade was in response to the Biden Justice Department’s prosecution of Trump.

Tobias said if Durbin persists, it could resultt in a lengthier Senate confirmation process for all U.S. Attorney nominees.

Still, he said he expects Wheeler’s and Mildred’s confirmations to take place this year, possibly as early as October.•