ON 500TH DAY OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS ANNOUNCES 311 NEW ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY POSITIONS

Largest Increase in AUSAs in Decades Allocates 5 Prosecutors to Eastern District of North Carolina to Focus on Violent Crime, Civil Enforcement, and Immigration Crimes

RALEIGH - On the 500th day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and U.S. Attorney for the District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr. announced that the Department of Justice is taking a dramatic step to increase resources to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis.

In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to assist in priority areas.  Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors.  Many of the civil enforcement AUSA’s will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

“Under President Trump's strong leadership, the Department of Justice is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis—and today we are sending in reinforcements,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “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.  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.”

In the Eastern District of North Carolina, 4 of these AUSAs will focus on violent crime and 1 on civil enforcement.  Mr. Higdon welcomed the addition of five new prosecutors to the staff of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District:  “We are so pleased that the Department of Justice has responded to our plea for new prosecutors.  President Trump and the Attorney General have charged this office with reducing the crime rate in the Eastern District and we have mobilized all the resources of this office – all 51 Assistant United States Attorneys and nearly 20 Special Assistant United States Attorneys – to drive the crime rate down and to make our communities safer and more secure.  The addition of five new prosecutors will improve our effectiveness and allow us to be even more responsive to the needs of law enforcement and to the communities all across our district.  We will move swiftly to fill these positons and the public will soon begin to see the results of more federal prosecutors working to reduce our violent crime rate and to stem the tide of the opioid crisis.”