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Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section

SECTION OVERVIEW

Attorneys in the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecute impactful cases aimed at preserving the government’s integrity, reforming corrupt behavior, and protecting citizens’ constitutional rights. The Section works in close partnership with the FBI and other investigative agencies to achieve its goals.

The Section’s public corruption work involves the investigation and prosecution of bribery, extortion, fraud, and embezzlement committed by elected and appointed officials, government employees, and those doing business with city, state, and federal government. The Section handles a variety of civil rights cases, including allegations that law enforcement officers used excessive force against citizens and allegations of hate crimes.

SECTION LEADERSHIP

Mack Jenkins

Mr. Jenkins was appointed Chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights (PCCR) Section in May 2017, after previously serving as Deputy Chief. Mr. Jenkins is a graduate of Yale Law School and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2008. He is currently the lead prosecutor in the Office’s ongoing corruption investigation into Los Angeles City Hall. While in the PCCR Section he helped author the Office’s first wiretap of a sitting state senator in decades. That wiretap resulted in bribery and money laundering charges against former CA Senator Ron Calderon and his brother, former CA Assemblyman Tom Calderon. The Calderon convictions garnered Mr. Jenkins a California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year Award in 2017. Mr. Jenkins also lead a hate crime investigation stemming from a gang’s coordinated midnight firebombing of units in the Ramona Gardens Housing Development that were occupied by Black families, including children, in order to drive these families out of their homes. This successful prosecution received the Anti-Defamation League’s Combatting Hate Award in 2020.  Mr. Jenkins public corruption and civil rights work also earned him the Daily Journal’s “Top 100 Lawyers in California” recognition in 2020. 

While previously in the OCDETF Section, Mr. Jenkins prosecuted the District’s first RICO case against a Bloods/Crips gang. This 45-defendant indictment of the Pueblo Bishop Bloods resulted in four separate multi-week trials. Across the four trials, all defendants were convicted of RICO and related charges, and two defendants—who were previously acquitted on state charges—were both separately convicted of federal murder. The Pueblo Bishops case and trials earned Mr. Jenkins another California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year Award. Mr. Jenkins followed that with a 72-defendant RICO indictment of the Broadway Gangster Crips, which was then the largest pending in the District. That impactful prosecution and multiple trials earned Mr. Jenkins and his team the DOJ Director’s Award in 2019, given to only a handful of AUSAs nationwide.

During his tenure in General Crimes, Mr. Jenkins prosecuted one of the Secret Service’s largest “ink and jet” counterfeiting schemes, which is now memorialized in an episode on MSNBC’s American Greed. 

Over his career in the Office, Mr. Jenkins has tried approximately 13 cases, 7 of which have been multi-week RICO trials. Mr. Jenkins has also secured federal murder convictions for over 10 defendants. In total, Mr. Jenkins has been an author on over 45 appellate briefs and argued before the Ninth Circuit nine times. Mr. Jenkins teaches Trial Advocacy and other courses at the National Advocacy Center and was one of the founding AUSAs for the District’s Substance Abuse Treatment And Reentry (STAR) Program, one of the first federal collaborative courts in the nation. He is co-chair of the Office’s Equality Working Group and a member of the Hiring Committee.

Mr. Jenkins received his B.A. from UCLA in 2000, where he had a brief and inglorious stint as a walk-on for the UCLA football team. He previously worked at the downtown Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn, where his practice focused on complex business and entertainment litigation and where he was awarded Public Counsel’s Volunteer Attorney of the Year Award for his pro bono litigation work in 2007.

RECENT CASES

October 28, 2022
Press Release
Federal Prosecutor to Serve as District Election Officer for Seven California Counties During November 8 General Election Period

October 18, 2022
Press Release
Federal Grand Jury Issues New Indictment in Conception Boat Fire

October 13, 2022
Press Release
High-Ranking Ventura County Gang Member Linked to Mexican Mafia Sentenced to 13½ Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking Offenses

October 12, 2022
Press Release
Brother of Former L.A. City Councilman José Huizar Admits Lying to Investigators about Converting Cash to Checks for Ousted Politician

October 7, 2022
Press Release
Former San Bernardino County Planning Commissioner Agrees to Plead Guilty to Bribery Charge for Corrupt Cannabis Permit Scheme

SECTION CONTACT INFORMATION

The United States Attorney's Office
Central District of California
Criminal Division
Attn: Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section
312 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Updated October 28, 2022