The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington Appoints Joseph H. Harrington to Serve as United States Attorney

Today, by way of the Vacancies Reform Act, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington appointed Joseph H. Harrington as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. The Eastern District of Washington comprises the twenty counties east of the crest of the Cascade Mountains.

Harrington said, “I am humbled that the District Court extended me the honor of serving as the U.S. Attorney: I consider it a great honor and privilege. I look forward to continuing to work with the outstanding, dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorneys and staff in this office, together with our federal, state, county, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, to carry on the remarkable work being accomplished in the Eastern District of Washington. The office continues to ‘punch above its weight’”.

Harrington served as the Acting U.S. Attorney, then as Interim U.S. Attorney, since March 10, 2017. He worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C. before joining the office in 1990. During his tenure in the office he has held the positions of First Assistant U. S. Attorney, Criminal Chief, Deputy Criminal Chief, Anti-Terrorism Advisory Coordinator, and Health Care Fraud Coordinator. Harrington was involved with the prosecutions of: Kevin W. Harpham, an avowed white supremacist who planted a sophisticated remotely-controlled IED along the route of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Unity March in Spokane; the Phineas Priest domestic terrorism case involving bank robberies and bombings of a Planned Parenthood office and a Spokane newspaper facility; and the Karl F. Thompson / Otto Zehm civil rights case. In addition to his broad-ranging criminal practice, Harrington has also defended the United States in civil cases involving medical malpractice tort claims, employment discrimination allegations, and the like. He has argued dozens of cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Harrington received his J.D. from Gonzaga University in 1986, where he was a Thomas Moore Scholar (full academic scholarship) and served as the Editor-in- Chief of the Gonzaga Law Review. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Engineering.