Lisa G. Johnston

Lisa G. Johnston is the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. As Acting United States Attorney, Johnston is the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Southern District of West Virginia, which covers 23 counties, and oversees all federal criminal prosecutions as well as the litigation of all civil matters in which the United States has an interest.

Johnston previously served as the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia from February 2021 to October 2021. She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia in August 2006 and has served as First Assistant United States Attorney, the second most-senior official in the United States Attorney’s Office, since January 2018.

Johnston began her 37-year career with the U.S. Department of Justice in 1988 as a Special Assistant United States Attorney and then as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia. In October 2001, Johnston accepted a detail with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Chief Counsel’s Office where she served as a legal advisor to ATF employees in the Louisville Field Division. In August 2005, Johnston accepted a detail with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she handled immigration appeals. 

Johnston has prosecuted a wide array of crimes and offenses during her career with a focus on violent crime, the sexual exploitation of children, drug trafficking and firearm offenses.

A native of Moundsville, West Virginia, Johnston earned a Juris Doctor degree from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1988. She graduated Cum Laude from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism in 1984.