Skip to main content

About the District

A map of the state highlighting the Northern District of Texas

A component of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas was established in 1879 to prosecute federal crimes and represent federal agencies in matters in North Texas.  The district encompasses some 96,000 square miles and eight million people and maintains staffed offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Amarillo, and Abilene, with additional unstaffed offices in Wichita Falls and San Angelo.

The U.S. Attorney, who sits in the Dallas office, is the highest-ranking Department of Justice official within the jurisdiction. She oversees a team of approximately 100 assistant prosecutors, known as Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs), and serves as the office’s main ambassador to the community. 

The district’s Criminal Division works to ensure public safety, primarily by prosecuting violations of federal criminal laws. Criminal AUSAs bring cases referred to them by a large number of law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and other federal, state, and local agencies. Criminal AUSAs also partner with agents and officers to conduct community outreach, building public trust and confidence in law enforcement.

The NDTX Criminal Division prosecutes more than 1,500 defendants each year, including those implicated in terrorism, violent crime (including gun crime), human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, public corruption, financial fraud, cybercrime, and drug crime. Though careful to file charges only when they are merited, Northern District AUSAs are notably tenacious when prosecuting cases they believe in: The District’s conviction rate hovers at around 94 percent, several points higher than the national average.

The district’s Civil Division represents the United States, be it a plaintiff or defendant, in civil lawsuits. Its Affirmative Unit handles cases brought under the False Claims Act, which empowers private citizens with knowledge of fraud to present those claims to the government and – in most cases – to share in any monetary recovery.

The Appellate Division argues cases on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which has appellate jurisdiction over U.S. District Courts in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Appellate AUSAs also advise criminal and civil division AUSAs on significant legal issues that may arise in their cases and keep abreast of changes and developments in the law. 

You can find more information about our office on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Note: Texas has three other United States Attorney’s Offices: the Western District of Texas (which covers Austin, San Antonio, Waco, and El Paso), the Southern District of Texas (which covers Houston, Galveston, Laredo, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville), and the Eastern District of Texas (which includes Plano, Beaumont, Lufkin, and Tyler). All four Texas U.S. Attorney’s Offices – and indeed, all 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the nation – take their cues from the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland.

Updated April 12, 2023