Charles J. Kovats has been appointed to be acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota.

He replaces Anders Folk, who stepped down to work at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General in Washington D.C., according to a news release Monday from the state U.S. Attorney's Office.

Kovats has served at the Minnesota office since 2010 when he joined as the national security section chief. Most recently, he was the office's criminal division chief.

Folk was sworn in in February as the state's interim U.S. attorney and took over for Trump-appointee Erica MacDonald while a search committee looked for a long-term replacement.

MacDonald agreed to resign her post, heeding President Joe Biden's call for U.S. attorneys across the country to make way for new blood.

MacDonald held the office starting in 2018, more than a year after the forced resignation of Obama appointee Andrew Luger.

ALEX CHHITH