Erek L. Barron, who recently resigned as United States attorney for Maryland, has left a gaping hole in the federal prosecuting office for the Free State. The first African American to serve as Maryland’s top federal prosecutor, a former state delegate who once endorsed the “Al Capone model of prosecution” seemed at times a perfect complement to newly elected Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and his aggressive call for lawbreakers to “bring their toothbrushes” if they chose to continue their illegal actions.

Barron and Bates made for a tremendous crime-fighting duo — if not Batman and Robin then perhaps Special Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman of “Twin Peaks.” However, it won’t be State’s Attorney Bates who will dread the loss of his federal crime-fighting counterpart the most, but rather that distinction could very well fall on the shoulders of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.

If Barron and Bates served as the “lock ’em up” tough guys, the second-term mayor could apply himself to more progressive strategies like employing community-based Safe Streets counselors to mediate conflicts and prevent violence or increasing resources to battle addiction. Together, the strategies have worked. Baltimore saw a 23% drop in gun violence in 2024 and that was on top of the record reduction in homicides in 2023 — when Bates was just getting his proverbial boots on after the 2022 election.

However, if President Donald Trump’s administration chooses to select a new U.S. attorney that is more focused on polarizing, partisan prosecution than continuing the positive trend of lowering the violent crime rate — as Ed Martin’s appointment in the District of Columbia already appears headed — that would be bad news for Baltimore and for Mayor Scott. Martin, a “Stop the Steal” activist, has declared himself to be President Trump’s lawyer and has ordered an internal review of prosecutors’ behavior in filing charges against Jan. 6 defendants.

It’s not too great a leap to imagine a new U.S. attorney for Baltimore might similarly come gunning for Mayor Scott and, for example, his use of $641 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds meant to help the city deal with COVID-19 and its aftermath. Given how Barron successfully prosecuted Baltimore Department of Finance employee Joseph Gillespie, 35, for taking more than $250,000 in bribes and obtaining more than $143,000 in fraudulent COVID-19 relief benefits, one can imagine a Department of Government Efficiency investigation looking for similar malfeasance, particularly in Democratic-controlled cities.

U.S. Attorney Barron, a Democrat who once worked in the office of the Baltimore state’s attorney, was willing to properly investigate crime wherever it pointed regardless of race, gender or political affiliation. His successful prosecutions included both Republican operative Roy McGrath, the former chief of staff to Gov. Larry Hogan, as well as Democratic prosecutor Marilyn Mosby.

Will a Trump-appointed US. attorney for Baltimore do the same if the evidence at hand points to a suspect within the Republican Party? Or will he or she focus only on crimes that were perpetrated by Democratic officials with whom there is political disagreement? Given the recent successes in prosecuting crime in Baltimore, it would seem likely that Bates would want to work with a newly appointed federal counterpart. Might politics interfere? Would there be a heightened interest in going after a Mosby but not a McGrath, for instance?

These questions would have seemed ridiculous just months ago but the times — and perhaps the legal standards — have changed. Trump’s decision to “clean house” in the U.S. Department of Justice, as he recently described his actions on social media, and fire any attorneys hired by the previous administration suggests the second-term president’s idea of “fair” prosecution differs markedly from how others see it.

At the very least, the next person to occupy Barron’s office on South Charles Street will likely seek to demonstrate a willingness to file charges related to illegal immigration, a Trump priority, that may isolate him in Democratic-dominated Baltimore and by doing so, compromise further local federal-state-local cooperative efforts to address violent crime.