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Press Release

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Selects Northern District of Illinois to Receive Six New Assistant U.S. Attorney Positions

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

CHICAGO — Attorney General Jeff Sessions and United States Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr., of the Northern District of Illinois, today announced that the district will receive additional resources to combat violent crime, enforce federal immigration laws and attack the opioid crisis.  The Northern District of Illinois will receive six Assistant U.S. Attorney positions to focus exclusively on those priorities.  Nationally, 311 new federal prosecutors will be assigned to districts throughout the country.

“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 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.”

“We welcome the additional resources to reduce violent crime, enforce our country’s immigration laws and fight the opioid epidemic,” said U.S. Attorney Lausch.  “Our Assistant U.S. Attorneys work tirelessly to keep the citizens of northern Illinois safe, and these new positions will strengthen those efforts.  We will work quickly to fill these positions with highly skilled, highly motivated attorneys.”

Under the Attorney General’s allocation, four of the new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions in the Northern District of Illinois will focus exclusively on violent crime.  The other two positions will be assigned to the office’s Civil Division, focusing on immigration cases and affirmative civil enforcement actions, which seek to recover government money lost to fraud or to impose penalties for violations of federal laws.  Many of the new civil enforcement positions announced today will support the Department of Justice’s newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force, which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

Updated June 4, 2018

Topics
Opioids
False Claims Act
Health Care Fraud
Violent Crime