The ex-federal prosecutor under Trump has joined the GOP’s top governor

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Bill McSwain, the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia under former President Donald Trump, will run for governor of Pennsylvania, he announced Monday, joining a tight Republican field that could still grow.

McSwains announced his first run for public office was not a surprise.

He wrote to Trump in July, seeking the former president’s endorsement for governor and, prior to that, told party figures for months he planned to run.

In a campaign video, McSwain took Democratic Governor Tom Wolfs ’handling of the pandemic, saying we had no forced closures and no state dictates and otherwise sounded familiar Republican notes about war issues. in culture, tax cuts and law and order.

He relied heavily on his background in law enforcement and service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

I will fight for all the commitment learned as a Marine and a prosecutor to restore law and order, freedom and economic opportunity, he said.

McSwain, 52, lives in Chester County and returned to practice in private law after more than three years as a U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia. He also served several years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia when George W. Bush became president.

He has also worked for two large Philadelphia -based law firms Drinker Biddle & Reath and, currently, Duane Morris and has degrees from Yale and Harvard.

McSwain tried to make the case that he was best positioned to defeat the Democratic nominee, state Attorney Josh Shapiro.

His supporters wanted to point out that Republicans in Pennsylvania have a tradition of nominating candidates for governor who were former prosecutors, with three Dick Thornburgh, Tom Ridge and Tom Corbett elected.

However, he will first have to go through the Republican field, which includes the former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, the former four -term congressman who became the party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2018, and Charlie Gerow, who runs a communications and marketing company in Harrisburg and vice chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Many Republican state senators are also considering running.

As a U.S. attorney, McSwain has fought with Democrats on law enforcement policy, including going to court successfully to fight plans to open a medically supervised drug injection site.

McSwain came from a stage in July where Trump was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas saying he had a letter from McSwain saying Trumps attorney Bill Barr, would not allow McSwain to investigate the fraud. of the voter in the last presidential election of Novembers.

McSwains’ letter said he was given a directive to forward the serious allegations to the state attorney’s office for investigation.

Barr denied to The Philadelphia Inquirer that he instructed McSwain not to investigate allegations of election fraud, and said McSwain only did so to claim Trump’s favor.

Shapiros’ office, at the time, said it had close contact with the U.S. attorneys’ office, and had not heard any concerns from McSwain or received a direct referral from McSwains’ office.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/timelywriter.

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