NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- President Donald Trump is nominating a law professor at Belmont University to be U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The White House said in a news release Thursday that Trump intends to nominate Donald Q. Cochran for the post.
Cochran was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Alabama from 1998 to 2002, prosecuting white collar crimes, public corruption and violent crimes, including the final defendant charged with the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
Cochran graduated from Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Law School. He was an Army Ranger and Special Forces officer for nine years.
"Mr. Cochran has long served his community and his country – as an Assistant United States Attorney, Deputy District Attorney, and Major in the United States Army. It is appropriate that he will serve here in the Middle District – he is a Nashville native and received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Vanderbilt University. I hope the Senate will quickly consider his nomination," U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said in a news release.
"President Trump has made another excellent decision in selecting Donald Cochran to serve Tennesseans as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District," U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said in a statement. "Don is a former prosecutor, respected law professor at Belmont University and U.S. Army veteran who has shown a great commitment to serving our country and enforcing the law. I congratulate him on being nominated for this critical position and am pleased to recommend him to my colleagues for confirmation."