NORTH DAKOTA U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE ALLOCATED FIVE ADDITIONAL PROSECUTORS, INCLUDING THREE FOR “INDIAN COUNTRY”

Fargo – United States Attorney Mac Schneider announced today that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota has been allocated five additional federal prosecutors by the Untied States Department of Justice. Three of these full-time Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) will be dedicated to addressing public safety needs on North Dakota’s reservations.

“For decades, the hallmark of the United States Attorney’s Office in North Dakota has been our role as a strong federal partner in promoting public safety across the state, especially in Indian Country,” Schneider said. “With this significant investment of additional resources from the Department of Justice, we will be able to play that role even more effectively.”

In addition to the three “Indian Country” prosecutors, the office will hire an additional AUSA to prosecute violent crime in Cass County and the surrounding areas. Another prosecutor will be charged with spearheading the office’s eLitigation efforts, an area that is increasingly important to all manner of criminal prosecutions.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota currently has 21 AUSAs working in its Criminal and Civil Divisions out of Bismarck and Fargo and an additional High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas prosecutor in Minot. The office is currently in the process of onboarding two criminal AUSAs to fill existing vacancies. When the additional five prosecutors are in place, a process expected to take several months, the office will have a total of 28 AUSAs.

The additional prosecutors assigned to “Indian Country,” a legal term defined by18 U.S. Code § 1151, will allow the United States Attorney’s Office to nearly double the prosecutorial resources currently dedicated to promoting public safety in North Dakota’s tribal communities.

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