U.S. Department
of Justice
LEADERSHIP
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz leads the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Texas along with EAUSA Rob Jones, EAUSA Krystal Walker, Criminal Chief John Pearson, Acting Civil Chief Jill Venezia, and Appellate Chief Carmen Mitchell.
Aaron Reitz
U.S. Attorney
Immediately prior to his service as U.S. Attorney, Reitz was in private practice with Hance Scarborough, LLP he represented and counseled clients in litigation and investigations before federal and state courts and agencies, and advised corporations, executives, and public entities on complex constitutional, regulatory, administrative, and commercial disputes.
He had also served as Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz, Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy under Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and clerked for now-Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Jimmy Blalock.
Before law school, he was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He spent nearly five years on active duty and deployed to the northern Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where he was embedded with the Afghan National Army. Reitz is still in the Marine Corps Reserve as a major.
Reitz earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and juris doctor from University of Texas.
Learn more on the USA page.
Rob Jones
Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney
Arthur R. “Rob” Jones started his career in 2002 as a line AUSA in the office’s Laredo Division, where he handled all aspects of border related crime. In 2011, he joined the office’s Houston-based Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces. Just prior to his appointment as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, Jones served as the deputy chief of the National Security and Public Corruption section.
Prior to becoming an AUSA, Rob served on active duty as a judge advocate and officer in the U.S. Air Force’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps from January 1995 to September 2002, specializing in criminal litigation. He separated from the Air Force in September 2002 to become an AUSA but continued to serve as a judge advocate in the Air Force Reserve until his retirement in February 2023.
Krystal Walker
Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney
Walker joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in 2016 and has served as an AUSA in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the office. She has defended the United States and its agencies in employment discrimination, civil immigration and federal Torts Claims Act cases. She also prosecuted white collar cases while in the office’s Fraud Section. Additionally, she served on a detail assignment to the General Counsel’s Office for the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. She previously served as an AUSA in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Walker was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills in the Northern District of Mississippi, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker in the Southern District of Mississippi and U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown in the Northern District of Mississippi. Before her clerkships, she practiced insurance defense and family law in the private sector.
She holds a Bachelor of Accountancy, cum laude, from Mississippi State University and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Mississippi School of Law.
John Pearson
Criminal Chief
John Pearson began his career with the Department of Justice in 2004 and joined the Southern District of Texas in 2012. Entering through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, a Trial Attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, and a Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division.
During his time in the office, Pearson has worked as an AUSA in the Major Fraud, Program Fraud, and National Security & Public Corruption Sections. He has also served as the deputy chief of the Program Fraud and Major Fraud Sections, as well as the office’s financial crimes coordinator, health care fraud coordinator, and Hurricane Harvey working group coordinator. Immediately prior to his appointment as Criminal Chief, he served as an Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney under two different U.S. Attorneys.
Pearson holds a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law. After graduating from law school, he served as a clerk to the Honorable H. Emory Widener, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a veteran of the United States Navy.
Jill Venezia
Acting Civil Chief
Venezia began her career with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston in October 1997 but began her service to the Department of Justice in 1989 with the USAO for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Throughout her DOJ career, she has worked in the Civil Division on affirmative and defensive litigation and the Financial Litigation Unit. She has held the titles and responsibilities of deputy civil chief, affirmative civil enforcement coordinator, civil health care fraud coordinator and senior litigation counsel.
Prior to that, she worked in private practice and was a federal judicial law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and Juris Doctor from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Carmen Mitchell
Appellate Chief
Mitchell began her career with the Southern District of Texas in 2008. Since that time, she has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Appellate Division where she authored direct appeals briefs and post-conviction responses, provided trial assistance to the Criminal Division, reviewed and edited briefs, presented at least 19 oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit and conducted trainings. Before becoming the chief of the Appellate Division in 2017, she served as its deputy chief.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she was a Harris County Assistant District Attorney in the Appellate Division in Houston for 11 years. While there, she worked on over 480 direct appeals, including eight capital murder death penalty appeals and presented more than 20 oral arguments, resulting in over 76 published opinions. She was also associate counsel on three respondent’s briefs in opposition in the U.S. Supreme Court while working at the Harris County D.A.’s Office.
Mitchell holds a B.A., cum laude, from Midwestern State University and a J.D., cum laude, from Texas Tech University School of Law.