President Donald Trump’s pick for Maine’s top federal prosecutor started the job on Wednesday.

Andrew Benson was nominated in September to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine.

He was appointed by the U.S. attorney general on Wednesday and sworn in that day, according to a webpage for Benson on the U.S. Attorney’s site. Benson was appointed “pending Senate confirmation,” the page says.

Benson had been a Maine District Court Judge since he was appointed by Gov. Paul LePage in 2014, serving mostly in Skowhegan. He resigned on Tuesday, according to a letter he sent to Gov. Janet Mills, who reappointed Benson in 2021.

“I do so with mixed feelings because I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a judge of the District Court,” Benson wrote in the letter, which the governor’s office provided to the Press Herald.

“I appreciate all the personal kindness that you have shown me throughout my career and particularly appreciate your decision to renominate me in 2021,” Benson continued. “I have no doubt that we will see one another during the next few years.”

It’s unclear when the Senate will vote on Benson’s nomination. Staff for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Benson was also a prosecutor for the district attorney’s office in Skowhegan and then worked for the Office of the Maine Attorney General.

He began his tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office as the government shutdown stretched into its fourth week.

While some civil cases involving the federal government have been paused, prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office are still working on criminal cases and other matters dealing with “the safety of human life or the protection of property,” according to the Department of Justice’s contingency plan for the shutdown.