Tessa M. Gorman

Tessa M. Gorman (born 1970/1971) is an American lawyer from Washington who served as the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington in 2021 and again in 2023. She was appointed as the U.S. Attorney in January 2024. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the same district. In 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he planned to nominate her to become a United States district judge of the same court, but the nomination was never submitted to the U.S. Senate.

Education
Gorman earned her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, where she was a member of the varsity track and field team, and her Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law, where she served as an editor of the California Law Review.

Legal career
After graduating from law school, Gorman served as a law clerk to Judge Douglas P. Woodlock of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

After completing her clerkship, Gorman served as an Honors Trial Attorney in the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division, assigned to the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section. She currently serves as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington, where she serves as the First Assistant United States Attorney. On March 1, 2021, she became the Acting U.S. Attorney after the resignation of Brian T. Moran and again in 2023, after the resignation of Nicholas W. Brown.

Nomination to district court
On July 13, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Gorman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Gorman was to be nominated to the seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington vacated by Judge Robert S. Lasnik, who took senior status on January 27, 2016. However, due to a dispute between the White House and Washington's Senators over a separate nomination, the nomination was never submitted to the Senate.