US Attorney nominee pledges support for President Trump agenda in Raleigh office

Dan Kane, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Aug 14, 2025

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In his first news conference since his nomination to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Ellis Boyle laid out three priorities: shutting down illegal immigration, cartels distributing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, and human traffickers.

“We have a very clear mission stated directly in the Eastern District of North Carolina United States Attorney’s Office,” Boyle said. “We will protect the law-abiding citizens. We will win trials. We will hold criminals accountable.”

Those goals align with President Donald Trump’s, who has promised to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally, and has criticized Mexico and China repeatedly for not shutting down fentanyl production and distribution.

“Nobody’s making fentanyl in Eastern North Carolina,” Boyle said, emphasizing that the powerful synthetic opioid is brought here. “There are children dying from it and we’re going to stop that.”

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi last week appointed Boyle interim U.S. attorney for the federal district that covers the state’s 44 easternmost counties, including Wake, Johnston and Harnett. That appointment lasts 120 days, after which the eastern district court judges could appoint an interim if a permanent U.S. attorney is not approved by the U.S. Senate.

Trump has taken the unusual step of naming interim U.S. attorneys for several districts, including those covering New York and Washington. Federal judicial panels in New York and New Jersey last month rejected interim U.S. attorneys who had drawn controversy, CBS News reported.

Boyle said it is his intent to win approval as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District within that 120-day period. “Hopefully, eventually I would become the Senate-confirmed, actual U.S. attorney, but I’m not that right now,” he said.

Government, private experience; some political clients

A native of Edenton, Boyle is a familiar name in state and federal government.

He worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for two years from 2010 to 2013 handling civil cases before joining Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration as general counsel for the Department of Public Safety. In his brief tenure there, just over a year, he rose to become deputy secretary of the department.

His father, Terrence Boyle, has been a U.S. District Court judge for more than 40 years and would have to recuse himself from hearing cases that his son’s office handled, Boyle said.

Boyle worked in private practice in Raleigh from 2014 until his nomination to lead the U.S. attorney’s office. He ran his own firm for several years until joining the Ward & Smith in Raleigh in 2023.

As a private attorney, Boyle has had prominent Republican clients, including the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party.

Boyle represented a political consulting group and a conservative political action committee who were defendants in a defamation lawsuit filed by a Rockingham County commissioner’s candidate last year. Dismissed three months ago, the suit was linked to a failed push to legalize casinos in North Carolina.

Future of probe into NC spending?

Since the eastern district includes Raleigh, the state capital, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has jurisdiction over public corruption in state government.

As part of its Power & Secrecy series, The News & Observer last year broke news that a federal grand jury in the eastern district was investigating legislative spending on three projects pushed by insiders. Republicans have long had a firm hold on the state legislature, currently with a supermajority in the Senate and a near supermajority in the House.

Boyle said he couldn’t discuss grand jury investigations, but added, “I’d be interested in knowing more about that.”

Boyle replaces acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Bubar, who will remain in the office. Bubar held the position for six months after U.S. Attorney Michael Easley Jr. stepped down to go into private practice. Easley had been appointed by then-President Joe Biden.

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