Meet the U.S. Attorney

Thomas E. Wheeler II was appointed by United States Attorney General Pam Bondi as Interim U.S. Attorney, effective July 14th, 2025.

A Pike High School graduate, U.S. Attorney (USA) Wheeler earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University Bloomington and his Juris Doctor from IU’s Maurer School of Law. Throughout his 36-year career as a practicing attorney, Mr. Wheeler has been a partner at several Indianapolis-based law firms including Bose McKinney & Evans LLP and Frost Brown Todd (formerly Locke Reynolds).

Most recently, USA Wheeler served as the Acting General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Education. This appointment marks a return to the Department of Justice, where he previously held the role of Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, overseeing a broad portfolio of divisions, including Appellate, Criminal, Disability Rights, Education, Immigrant and Employee Rights, Housing, Voting, and others.

His federal service also includes Senior Adviser to the White House Federal Commission on School Safety, formed in response to high-profile school shootings, and serving as Senior Counsel to the Secretary of Education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that role, he worked with the Center for Disease Control and the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

In 2019, USA Wheeler served as General Counsel for the National Sheriffs’ Association, providing legal counsel to over 3,300 elected sheriffs nationwide. He has served on numerous boards and commissions, including as Chair of the Hate Crimes Subcommittee for the Federal Violent Crime Reduction Task Force, a member of the DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force, and as a consultant to the CDC on the Federal COVID-19 response for jails and prisons.

U.S. Attorney Wheeler is a former Chair of both the Indiana Recount and Election Commissions and played a key role in the creation of Indiana’s voter ID law, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008).

He is a two-time recipient of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Benjamin Harrison Writing Award and a Burton Award for Legal Achievement winner for his work on cyberbullying and hate crimes. He has been recognized for many years in The Best Lawyers in America® and Indiana Super Lawyers® and was named Municipal Lawyer of the Year in 2016.