Trump picks Pasco mayor to be next U.S. attorney for Eastern WA
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Trump appoints Pasco Mayor Pete Serrano as U.S. attorney for Eastern WA.
- Senate must confirm Serrano, a former DOE lawyer and Silent Majority founder.
- Appointment follows past candidacy for AG and multiple COVID, firearms lawsuits.
Pasco Mayor Pete Serrano has been appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
The appointment, which will require confirmation from the U.S. Senate, is a big political promotion for Serrano, a champion of conservative issues from anti-COVID vaccine mandates to gun rights and a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Serrano, 44, will be the third individual to hold the office since the start of the second Trump Administration nearly seven months ago.
Two have served in acting roles. Richard Barker served February to July, and current Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Van Marter has been in the role for the past month.
Serrano could not be reached Thursday or Friday by the Herald but he told The Spokesman-Review he was “excited and waiting for it to be finalized.”
Pasco Mayor Pro Tem David Milne told the Herald he’d spoken to Serrano, who planned to submit his letter of resignation from the city council before the weekend.
Serrano has served on the council since 2018 and was chosen by the council as mayor of the 80,000-person city in January 2024.
“He’s an outstanding individual, hard worker. Definitely knows his stuff. We’re very excited about his new job opportunity, but his leadership will definitely be missed on the city council,” Milne told the Herald.
News of Serrano’s appointment also received kudos from U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside.
From California to Washington
Serrano and his family moved to Washington state from the Sacramento area in 2015. He began his legal career at a boutique firm that sued states over the Clean Water Act.
Before establishing the conservative legal nonprofit Silent Majority Foundation, Serrano worked as an environmental lawyer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site near Richland.
There he helped transfer 1,500 acres of government land into a solar farm and worked with the department to ensure safe and effective cleanup at the site that produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during the Cold War. He also worked for the DOE’s legal team during the 2017 PUREX tunnel collapse.
Days after his election as Pasco mayor, Serrano threw his hat in the ring to run for Washington attorney general. He said his experience in environmental law and belief in “common sense regulation” made him a right fit for the office.
He squared off against Nick Brown, the former U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, who ultimately won the 2024 general election by 12 percentage points.
In debates against Brown, Serrano called the Capitol rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, “political prisoners,” and said he would struggle to defend the state’s laws protecting abortion access, according to the Spokesman-Review.
Serrano co-founded the Silent Majority Foundation in 2021 to protect “our God given constitutional rights” and ensure “equal protection under the laws of the United States of American and each state,” its website says.
The group has most recently represented a Kelso gun shop, Gator’s Custom Guns, in challenging the state’s 2022 law banning the sale on ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
The shop argues the law went against the state constitution and federal Second Amendment rights, but the Washington Supreme Court disagreed in a 7-2 ruling earlier this year, reversing a Superior Court’s decision and upholding the law.
With that loss under their belt, Silent Majority this week solicited another firm to file a Hail Mary petition this week with the U.S. Supreme Court to review its case against the state.
Serrano and the nonprofit also organized a failed 2021 lawsuit to overturn federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates on behalf of 300 Hanford site and Pacific Northwest National Labor workers, and last year sued Washington State University after it declined to renew the contract of an associate professor who was critical of the vaccine.
Serrano and his wife, PJ, live in Pasco with their three kids.
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 12:22 PM.
