Lesley A. Woods

Ms. Woods was appointed by Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi as the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Nebraska on May 9, 2025.  Ms. Woods was nominated by President Donald J. Trump to serve as the presidentially appointed United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska on May 6, 2025. Ms. Woods previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska between the years of 2017 and 2023.

In that capacity, Ms. Woods was selected as the Violent Crime Coordinator for the district and focused her efforts on prosecuting gang cases, homicides, armed robberies of businesses and banks, firearms conspiracies, and served on the district’s Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force.  Ms. Woods additionally prosecuted human trafficking matters and other complex litigation matters for the District of Nebraska while dually serving on the National Capital Crimes Committee where she served on detail as a voting member for capital offenses charged around the country.

From late 2023 to early 2025, Ms. Woods served as a trial attorney at Department of Justice headquarters, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section.  In that capacity, Ms. Woods was assigned to the October 7th task force and assisted with significant national security prosecutions around the country.  Ms. Woods additionally served on the military liaison team within the Counterterrorism Section, in part due to her status as veteran of the United States Air Force.

From January 27, 2025, until her appointment as Interim United States Attorney on May 9, 2025, Ms. Woods was a national security and cybercrimes prosecutor assigned to the Baltimore National Security Section for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

Prior to serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Ms. Woods served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from 2014 to 2017.  In that role, Ms. Woods was the designated prosecutor for her division office assigned to prosecute violent crime, gang, drug trafficking, robbery, and organized crime matters.  Ms. Woods additionally served as a primary federal prosecutor for that division office to prosecute crimes committed against children and particularly the sexual exploitation of children.

Ms. Woods also served on active duty in the United States Air Force immediately after completing law school.  Ms. Woods was a Captain and an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force JAG Corp between January, 2011, and late 2014, when she was offered a position as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas.

Ms. Woods was raised in Colorado. She studied criminology and criminal justice at the University of Colorado and the Metropolitan State College of Denver. She then earned her law degree from the University of Iowa. Ms. Woods made Nebraska her home after meeting her husband here, who is from Grand Island, Nebraska.