Senate confirms NC’s Dan Bishop, Ellis Boyle for US attorney positions
The Senate confirmed U.S. Attorneys Ellis Boyle and Dan Bishop to lead the prosecutor’s offices in the Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina, respectively, in a Monday evening vote.
The Senate confirmed the men in a 46 to 43 vote, along with 47 others nominated by President Donald Trump, including North Carolina’s Daniel Edwards, who will serve as assistant secretary of transportation.
Monday night’s vote takes Boyle and Bishop from interim positions to four-year terms, after first being appointed by former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Interim U.S. attorneys typically serve 120 days.
Ellis Boyle
The vote also comes three weeks after a grand jury in Boyle’s district indicted former FBI Director James Comey for taking a picture of seashells that formed the shape of “86 47” on a North Carolina beach and posting it on social media. Some say the seashells could be perceived as a threat against Trump.
Boyle began serving the Eastern District as its interim U.S. attorney in August 2025.
He oversees North Carolina’s 44 easternmost counties.
From 2010 to 2013, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney, and from 2013 to 2014 as general counsel and deputy secretary of the Department of Public Safety during Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration.
Since then, he worked in private practice.
Boyle is the son of federal judge Terrence Boyle and grandson of Tom Ellis, a North Carolina political strategist who helped shape the campaigns of conservatives like Sen. Jesse Helms — and even President Ronald Reagan.
Dan Bishop
Bondi nominated Bishop, a Republican from the Charlotte area, to serve as interim U.S. attorney in November 2025. He oversees the prosecutions in 24 of North Carolina’s central counties.
Bondi also ordered Bishop to find evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.
Prior to his nomination, Bishop served in the Office of Management and Budget as deputy director under Director Russell Vought, a position that also needed and received Senate confirmation.
Prior to that role, Bishop served since 2019 as North Carolina’s representative for a central North Carolina district.
In 2024, he decided to forgo his reelection campaign to run to be the state’s attorney general, but was ultimately defeated by his House colleague Jeff Jackson.
Bishop also served in the N.C. House and Senate, where he became known as the author of the controversial House Bill 2, which required transgender individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender assigned to them at birth instead of the gender they identify with.
He began his political career as a Mecklenburg County commissioner and served in private practice from 1990 to 2019.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Senate confirms NC’s Dan Bishop, Ellis Boyle for US attorney positions."
