Former Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston

Lisa G. Johnston

Acting U.S. Attorney

Lisa G. Johnston is the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.  She serves in that capacity under the Vacancies Reform Act, as the Office’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney.  As Acting U.S. Attorney, she is responsible for overseeing all federal criminal 
prosecutions and the litigation  of  all  civil  matters  in  the  Southern  District  of  West Virginia  in  which  the  federal government has an interest.

Johnston is a career prosecutor who joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia in August 2006.  In 2010, she was named the Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the district.  Throughout her lengthy career with the Department of Justice, Johnston prosecuted numerous sexual exploitation cases as well as federal cases involving firearms, arson, drugs and health care fraud.

Johnston assumed the duties of First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the  Southern District of West Virginia in January 2018.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia, Johnston was employed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney and then as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia from 1988 until 2006.  In 2000, she organized 
and led the Northern District of West Virginia’s Crimes Against Children Task Force.

From 2001 though 2005, she completed a detail with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Chief Counsel’s Office.

Johnston received her law degree from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1988. She received a B.A. cum laude in Journalism from West Virginia University in 1984.