LOS ANGELES — Former Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli was sworn in Wednesday as the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California a day after being appointed by Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

Chief United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee swore in Essayli at a private ceremony in Los Angeles.

Essayli, who formerly represented the 63rd District, which encompasses parts of Riverside from Norco to Lake Elsinore and Menifee, now leads the largest federal judicial district in the country, outside of Washington, D.C.

The Central District of California serves 20 million people across the seven counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The office has over 250 lawyers.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to lead the United States Attorney’s Office and serve the people of the district that I have called home for so many years,” Essayli said in a statement. “As our district’s chief federal prosecutor, I will work diligently and tirelessly with our federal and local law enforcement partners to implement the priorities of the President and the Attorney General and to protect our communities from criminals. Our citizens deserve no less.”

Riverside voters elected Essayli to represent the 63rd District in 2022. Many consider him a fast-rising Republican politician and ardent Trump supporter.

He criticized California’s “woke” politics. He recently authored a bill that would have reversed a 2013 state law that allowed students to take part in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, with their gender identity.

State lawmakers struck it down on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old Chapman Law graduate returns to the DOJ, where he served from 2014 to 2018 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the LA and Riverside offices.

He specialized in cases involving organized crime, identity theft, bank fraud, securities fraud and other white-collar crimes. Essayli was also part of the team of federal prosecutors that responded to the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino in December 2015, DOJ officials said.