With the departure of U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia at midnight Friday, the office announced Monday that Charlie Peeler’s first assistant will fill the job on an interim basis.

Peeler said last week he will return to private practice with an unnamed law firm in Atlanta. He handled intellectual property litigation at Atlanta-based King & Spalding before moving to co-founding Flynn Peeler & Phillips of Albany in 2005 and becoming U.S. attorney in 2017.