The Northern District of Alabama will receive four new federal prosecutors as part of a nationwide increase of resources from the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sessions and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, who oversees the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Northern Alabama, announced the increase in resources as part of an effort, the Department of Justice said, to “combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis.”
The districts include 31 counties in North Alabama, and prosecutors will oversee the enforcement of federal law.
“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, the Department of Justice is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis — and today we are sending in reinforcements,” Sessions said in a statement from the Department of Justice. “We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is ‘the coin of the realm.'”
The DOJ said the increase is the largest in decades. Nationwide, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new assistant U.S. attorneys to assist in priority areas identified by the administration. Included in the increase are 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors and 35 additional immigration prosecutors.
Many of the civil enforcement AUSA’s will target the opioid distribution system — which may include drug companies and distributors — while supporting the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force.
Sessions said he tasked his office with distributing new prosecutors after finding ways to eliminate what he said was “wasteful spending.”
“I have personally worked to re-purpose existing funds to support this critical mission, and as a former federal prosecutor myself, my expectations could not be higher,” Sessions said. “These exceptional and talented prosecutors are key leaders in our crime-fighting partnership. This addition of new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions represents the largest increase in decades.”
Three of the newly allotted assistant U.S. attorneys in the Northern District will focus on reducing violent crime, including through “more aggressive” enforcement of gun and drug-trafficking laws. The fourth newly added prosecutors will focus on affirmative civil enforcement. He will seek monetary recoveries from corporations and individuals who have defrauded the United States through health care or other government procurement fraud.
“This announcement solidifies the commitment that the Department of Justice has in reducing crime, especially violent crime, and protecting the public fisc in Northern Alabama,” Town said. “The steadfast leadership of Attorney General Sessions continues to impact positively every district in the United States, and these new prosecutors will bolster our ability to execute the violent crime priorities of the Department of Justice. Our side of the battlefield can never be too crowded.”
