David Freed (attorney)

Freed sought and won the Republican nomination for State Attorney General unopposed, after State Senator John Rafferty withdrew from the race.[6] He lost to Democrat Kathleen Kane, a former Assistant D.A. of Lackawanna County, in the fall general election.

On November 15, 2017, Freed was confirmed by the United States Senate via a voice vote as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, a nomination that was supported by both of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senators, Democrat Bob Casey Jr. and Republican Pat Toomey.[7] He was sworn in on November 27, 2017.

In September 2020, Freed's office issued a public announcement that nine military mail-in ballots had been disposed in the trash at a Pennsylvania election office.[8] The announcement specifically mentioned that seven of the votes had been cast for Trump.[8] The decision to publicly disclose that nine ballots had been discarded was outside normal protocol, leading to concerns that Freed's office was stoking conspiracies about election fraud and seeking to undermine public confidence in the 2020 election.[9][8][10] At the time, President Donald Trump had repeatedly made baseless claims that there would largescale fraud in the 2020 election against his re-election.[9] It was later revealed that a temp worker at the election office had mistakenly discarded the ballots.[8][11]

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Freed announced his resignation.[3][12][13]