She will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate within 120 days before officially being named to the role.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Federal Trade Commissioner Melissa Holyoak speaks as state and federal officials announce a settlement in a lawsuit against Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, during a press conference at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.
Former Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak was appointed Monday as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Utah by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Holyoak, at the time, was serving as a Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission. She officially departed from the role Monday, according to the FTC.
Utah’s new top federal attorney was Utah’s solicitor general — the state’s top litigator — from 2020 until her confirmation to the FTC in 2024. During that time, she oversaw prominent cases such as Utah’s ongoing defense of a currently blocked near-total abortion ban and the launch of a lawsuit challenging Biden-era expansions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
Former FBI agent Felice John Viti has served as Utah’s acting U.S. attorney since former U.S. Attorney Trina Higgins, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, resigned in February of this year.
Holyoak will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate within 120 days before officially being named to the role.
“Melissa is a woman of keen judgement, deep integrity, and unfailing commitment to the rule of law,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement Monday. “It has been a blessing to serve alongside her for almost four years as fellow Commissioners and state solicitors general. She will be sorely missed at the FTC. But our loss is Utah’s great gain.”
Ferguson added, “As US Attorney she will be a fearless champion for the people of Utah and for President Trump’s Golden-Age agenda. I will be rooting for her in her new role.”
Holyoak was originally appointed to the FTC by former President Joe Biden in 2023. At the time, some conservative groups objected to the nomination, arguing that she, while working at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, had a “history of attempting to kneecap the work of the government in holding Big Tech companies accountable.”
Sen. Mike Lee said following her nomination that Holyoak was a “smart, principled attorney” and praised her time as the state’s solicitor general. She was confirmed in March 2024.
After President Donald Trump moved to fire two Democratic members of the five-seat FTC, which operates under partisan membership requirements, the removed Democrats sued Holyoak and the remaining two commissioners to block them from “taking any action that would prevent Plaintiffs from fulfilling their duties as Commissioners and serving out the remainder of their terms.”
Holyoak said in a statement following the dismissals that “the President has the constitutional authority to remove Commissioners. President Trump exercised that authority yesterday. But this does not change the FTC’s mission or the urgency of our work.”
After a district court held that the commissioners’ removal was unlawful, Trump appealed. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the firing of Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter to move forward in September, and announced that it will hear arguments on the case next month.
Trump has not nominated Democratic replacements for the two dismissed members — but is expected to tap Ryan Baasch, a Republican staffer on the White House’s National Economic Council, to take Holyoak’s spot.