NASHVILLE (AP) — Mark H. Wildasin will be Middle Tennessee's top federal prosecutor while President Donald Trump's appointee awaits U.S. Senate confirmation.

A U.S. Department of Justice news release Tuesday says Wildasin will be U.S. attorney for 120 days or until Trump's pick is confirmed.

Trump has nominated Belmont University law professor Donald Cochran for the Nashville-based U.S. attorney job.

Wildasin has served as civil chief for the U.S. attorney's office in Nashville since January 2006.

In the role, Wildasin spent a year starting in October 2011 as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Justice Attaché at the American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

He previously was a member of the Nashville-based firm Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis.

He replaces Acting U.S. Attorney Jack Smith, who has announced his Justice Department retirement.