A committee assembled by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recommended Wagner to the president, selecting from a pool of "seven or eight" candidates, Wagner said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
If his appointment is confirmed by the Senate, Wagner will replace acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown. Wagner said his nomination will likely come before the Senate in September or October, adding that he is "pretty confident" that the process will "go well."
After graduating from New York University's law school, Wagner spent five years at the New York City law firm Cahill, Gordon and Reindel, but ultimately moved to California to work for the state.
"I pretty much cut my salary in half by coming from a law firm to the office here in 1992," Wagner said. "While I enjoyed my time in the firm, I have never for a moment regretted that decision."
Working in the U.S. Attorney's office has provided a consistently fulfilling career, Wagner added.
"It's a very rewarding job ... because your only agenda is to find out the truth and do the right thing," he said. "I have a lot of responsibility, and I'm dealing with real people's lives in ways that really matter."
Wagner said his goals as a U.S. Attorney include increasing the prosecution and prevention of white-collar crime and corruption, more fully protecting civil rights, dealing with hate crimes and reaching out to the area's growing community of immigrants.
Since coming to the U.S. Attorney's office, Wagner has served in a number of leadership roles, including coordinating the Eastern District Task Forces on Violence Against Abortion Providers, Violence Against Women Act, Anti-Terrorism and Hate Crimes.
Wagner has been the prosecutor in several high-profile cases in which defendants committed violence against abortion providers and at abortion clinics.
One of Wagner's cases, which garnered national media attention, involved Rachelle Shannon, who shot abortion doctor George Tiller in 1993. Tiller was killed this May by another anti-abortion activist in Kansas.
During Shannon's trial in Kansas for attempted murder, it was discovered that she had also attacked multiple abortion clinics in Oregon, Nevada and California. Wagner helped negotiate Shannon's guilty plea, adding several years of jail time to her sentence.
Wagner also has international legal experience. From May 2005 to June 2006, he worked in Indonesia as the Department of Justice's first Resident Legal Advisor, advising the Indonesian government on corruption and terrorism issues.
Wagner is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y. He majored in history and government at Dartmouth and participated in the government department's Foreign Study Program in Washington, D.C. Wagner also competed on the crew and fencing teams and was a member of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity.
