Oklahoma’s governor named a Tulsa attorney as the state’s new attorney general amid legal battles with the federal government and Native American Tribes over criminal and civil jurisdictions on tribal lands.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced in a statement Friday (July 23, 2021) that John O’Connor was “the right leader for the moment.”
O’Connor replaces Mike Hunter -- who resigned as attorney general in May – and will serve of the remainder of his term through January 2023.
According to legal news service Law 360, in 2018 then-President Trump had nominated O’Connor as a federal district judge in Oklahoma -- but the Tulsa attorney withdrew following a negative review by American Bar Association.