Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday the Justice Department will hire 300 additional prosecutors to bolster its efforts against illegal immigration and spiraling opioid abuse.
NEW: Justice Department announces addition of more than 300 assistant U.S. attorneys, calling it the "largest increase in decades." https://t.co/dwjETa2gIo pic.twitter.com/SLyD8OkPpM
— ABC News (@ABC) June 4, 2018
“In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to assist in priority areas. Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“The Eastern District of New York and Puerto Rico will each receive the largest allocation of assistant U.S. attorneys focused on violent crime with five each, the Justice Department said. An additional 12 districts, including the Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of New York, Southern District of Ohio, and the Northern District of Texas, will each receive four new violent crime prosecutors,” The Washington Times reports.
“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,” the Attorney General said.
“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.”
The Justice Department, which cut over $702 million from its budget in 2018, will spend nearly $72 million to hire the new U.S. Attorneys.
The announcement comes amid ongoing criticism directed at Attorney General Sessions, whom President Donald Trump said last Wednesday he regretted nominating to lead the agency.
In response to Rep. Trey Gowdy’s interview with Fox News in which the lawmaker said he understood why Trump regrets not nominating someone else for Attorney General, the President tweeted, “I wish I did!”
Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too…and that’s how I read that – Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
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