White House counsel Delery stepping down

White House counsel Stuart Delery is stepping down from his post, President Biden announced Thursday.

Delery joined the administration as deputy counsel to the president and was promoted to the top job in July 2022, after former White House counsel Dana Remus left.

Biden called him “a trusted adviser and a constant source of innovative legal thinking since Day One of my Administration,” in a statement. He noted that Delery advised him during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he worked on implementation of all the major legislation that passed in the two years of the administration. 

“From his work during those early days on COVID-19 and efforts to get life-saving vaccines to the American public to the implementation of major legislative accomplishments such as the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act, he has been an integral part of my team and will be missed throughout the Administration,” Biden said.

Delery was the first openly gay person to hold the role of White House counsel.

He previously served as acting associate attorney general from 2014-16 and was a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before joining the Biden administration.