Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Christopher P. Canova, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, recently announced that the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys nationwide to assist to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the opioid crisis.
The allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 immigration prosecutors. Many of the civil enforcement AUSAs will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force, which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.
The two new AUSA positions allocated to the Northern District of Florida will focus on violent crime.
U.S. Attorney Canova said, “My office will use these two new AUSA positions to prosecute the predators who terrorize our communities. Everyone should feel safe to walk the sidewalks and let their children play in the yard.â€
“We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is ‘the coin of the realm.’ When we can eliminate wasteful spending, one of my first questions to my staff is if we can deploy more prosecutors to where they are needed,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “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. 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.â€