President Trump sends three Indian-American nominations to U.S. Senate for approval

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President Donald Trump send a slew of 30 nominees to the U.S. Senate May 4, 2020, among them three Indian-Americans, who if approved would be taking up cabinet level and judicial positions. The President had earlier this year, declared his intent to nominate two of them.

Saritha Komatireddy, of New York, is nominated as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, replacing Joseph Frank Bianco, who was promoted.

Ashok Michael Pinto, of Illinois, would become the United States Alternate Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a term of two years, if the Senate clears his nomination. He would replace Erik Bethel who resigned from the position.

Manisha Singh, of Florida, would take up a top position as the  U.S. Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with the rank of Ambassador.

Komatireddy, who the President had picked back in February as his nominee, has been serving as the Deputy Chief of General Crimes in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York since 2013. She served as Acting Deputy Chief, International Narcotics and Money Laundering from June 2018 to January 2019,  prior to which she was the Coordinator of Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property from 2016 to 2019, according to LinkedIn.

She taught at Columbia Law School from 2014 to2019 covering Oil and Gas law, and later, Internet and Computer Crimes. During her career, she was also counsel in the investigative team dealing with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill back in 2010.

A graduate of Harvard, she received her law degree from Harvard Law School and clerked with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, now on the Supreme Court bench.

Ashok Michael Pinto, a graduate of the University of Illinois, with a law degree from Stanford, is Counselor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. He has extensive experience in the private sector as well as on Capitol Hill where he was a top staffer on the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in the Senat, and in the important House of Representatives  Committee on Oversight and Reform as well as the Judiciary Committee.

Trump had announced his intent to nominate Manisha Singh, the current Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs at the State Department, April 27.

Singh has held several senior positions in the State Department including Acting Under Secretary of Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs. Singh also has legislative experience having served as deputy chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her career.
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