Pennsylvania Attorney General and former Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry has been appointed to a new job for 2025.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, announced Thursday that Henry, who took his spot at the state’s law enforcement official when he become governor, will take over as Pennsylvania’s State Inspector General starting on January 21, 2025.
Henry, who did not run for election, will leave the attorney general’s office on on January 21 as Republican Dave Sunday is sworn in. The incoming attorney general is presently the York County District Attorney and beat Democrat Eugene DePasquale in the November election.
“Michelle is an experienced prosecutor who has spent decades in public service protecting consumers’ rights, standing up for public safety and the rule of law, and fighting for people all across Pennsylvania. As our next Inspector General, I have complete confidence in her ability to hold bad actors accountable for fraud and misconduct and root out waste and abuse. I look forward to continuing to work with her to ensure state government is delivering for the good people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said in a statement.
The governor thanked outgoing Inspector General Lucas M. Miller, who will resign on January 2, 2025. The outgoing official was appointed by former Gov. Tom Wolf and then Shapiro.
“I am honored to serve as Pennsylvania’s next Inspector General and humbled by the trust Governor Shapiro has placed in me,” said Henry. “As Attorney General, I worked to root out fraud and protect Pennsylvania taxpayers from deceptive practices – and as Inspector General, I will continue to hold bad actors accountable and to protect the Commonwealth from waste, fraud, and abuse. Working with Governor Shapiro, we will make sure that the Office of Inspector General always has Pennsylvanians’ backs.”
Previously, Henry previously served as the first deputy attorney general under Shapiro starting in 2017.
Henry worked her way from a line prosecutor to the top non-elected official at the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office before being tapped to fill the top seat for a short period of time after former District Attorney Diane Gibbons became a Court of Common Pleas judge. She then returned to serving as first assistant through District Attorney David Heckler’s term and the opening months of Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub’s time leading the office.
Weintraub said in 2023 that Henry was a “fearless” prosecutor who would “always take the most difficult cases.”
While Henry was a top prosecutor in Bucks County, she was loaned to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office, along with then-prosecutor Antonetta Stancu, to assist in the case against against former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was convicted and sentenced to prison.
Henry prosecuted homicide, child abuse, robbery, burglary, and drug cases during her 21 years working in Bucks County. She re-tried to conviction Richard Laird for first-degree murder after his original conviction and death sentence in a 1987 Bristol Township murder was overturned by a judge and she led the law enforcement community through the death of Middletown Township Police Department Detective Christopher Jones.
The Office of State Inspector General is a law enforcement agency focused on fraud, misconduct, and abuse in executive agencies under the governor’s jurisdiction. The agents of the office are asked with looking into fraud or waste in taxpayer-funded grant programs, contracts, and procurements and it investigates public benefit fraud and collect misused taxpayer funds. The agency works closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
First Deputy State Inspector General Clarke Madden will serve as interim inspector general between January 2 and January 21, 2025.
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