Trini Ross sworn in as U.S. Attorney for western New York

New York – A former federal prosecutor is now the U.S. Attorney for Western New York.

Trini Ross is chosen for the job by President Joseph Biden Jr. after a recommendation from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who was sworn in this week by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford, the chief judge for the district.

Last month the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Ross.

The district includes Erie and Monroe counties and stretches throughout much of the Southern Tier and western Finger Lakes. By now, Ross, a Buffalo native, is the first Black woman to head the region’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Trini Ross previously served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District, working as the office’s Senior Litigation Counsel and heading its anti-fraud and corruption section from 2012 to 2017. She first joined the office in 1995.

She has been the investigations director of the legal division of the National Science Foundation’s Office of the Inspector General since 2018. She also previously served as assistant legal counsel with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

Ross received her law degree, cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law in 1992, her master’s degree from Rutgers University in 1990, and her bachelor’s from the State University of New York, at Fredonia in 1988.