In 1982, Boente began his career as a
law clerk for Chief U.S. District Judge
J. Waldo Ackerman for the Central District of Illinois. In 1984, he joined the Tax Division's Criminal Section as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program. Boente became an Assistant
U.S. Attorney in the Fraud Unit of the Eastern District of Virginia in 2001. In December 2012, Boente was appointed by President
Barack Obama to serve as the
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a position he held until September 2013. He became the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia by virtue of the
Vacancy Reform Act on September 23, 2013, and served in that position until December 15, 2015. In this role, he was involved in
the sentencing of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen. He stated that, "No one is above the law... not a high public official, not even the highest public official [in Virginia]." McDonnell's conviction was unanimously overturned by the
United States Supreme Court on June 27, 2016, with
Chief Justice John Roberts declaring that McDonnell's actions as governor were "tawdry", but agreed that instructions to the jury in his case about what constitutes "official acts" were so broad, they could cover almost any action a public official takes. The
Justice Department, against the wishes of Boente's office, decided not to re-try either McDonnell and dismissed all charges. He was nominated on October 8, 2015, and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 2015, as the 60th U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and was confirmed by the
United States Senate via voice vote on December 15, 2015. Boente was one of the 46
United States Attorneys ordered by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 10, 2017 to
tender their resignation; Trump declined to accept his. President
Donald Trump appointed Boente as Acting Attorney General on January 30, 2017, after Acting Attorney General
Sally Yates was
dismissed by Trump earlier that evening. Upon Yates’ dismissal,
Channing D. Phillips, the
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, served as Acting Attorney General for a few hours pursuant to Executive Order 13762 titled “Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice” until President
Donald Trump signed an executive order appointing Boente to replace Yates later that evening. When
Jeff Sessions was confirmed and sworn in as Attorney General on February 9, 2017, Boente became Acting
Deputy Attorney General. Sessions recused himself from all matters pertaining to American presidential campaigns because of revelations that he had communications with Russian Ambassador to the U.S.
Sergey Kislyak during the
2016 United States presidential election, Boente was designated to perform the functions of the Attorney General with respect to campaign issues until the permanent deputy attorney general,
Rod J. Rosenstein, was confirmed and sworn into office which took place on April 25, 2017. On October 27, 2017 Boente announced his intention to resign as U.S. Attorney and as acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division; he said he would remain in the positions until a replacement is confirmed. On January 23, 2018, Boente was named general counsel to the FBI by Director
Christopher Wray, filling the vacancy after James Baker's reassignment to another part of the bureau. On May 29, 2020, Boente resigned from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, effective June 30. ==Personal life==