Idaho to receive 2 new prosecutors to focus on violent crimes, opioids
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The following is a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho.
BOISE — On Monday, the 500th day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho Bart M. Davis announced that the Department of Justice is taking a dramatic step to increase resources to combat violent crime and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis.
In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating new Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) across the country to assist in priority areas. Among the new positions, the District of Idaho will receive a violent crime prosecutor and a civil enforcement prosecutor.
“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 Jeff 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.”
The reduction in violent crime is a primary objective of the Department of Justice. Since he took office last September, U.S. Attorney Davis has spearheaded the reinvigoration of Idaho’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program designed to reduce gun violence across the state. Davis has already held several meetings with federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement, prosecution and community leaders to build upon an already strong commitment among Idaho’s leaders to making the state safer. With these newest AUSA positions, Davis will seek to bolster federal prosecutions of those who illegally possess or attempt to possess firearms, criminal gang members and violent drug traffickers as well as use data analytics to help find evidence of overprescribing and opioid-related health care fraud.
“The District of Idaho’s new violent crime AUSA and civil enforcement AUSA will both be housed in our Boise office. They will provide our District with further federal prosecution resources aimed at reducing violent crime and attacking the opioid crisis in Idaho,” U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced. “Our new civil enforcement AUSA will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force, which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system, and will allow us to expand our efforts to combat health care fraud, including fraud involving medically unnecessary opioid prescriptions. Our new violent crime AUSA will support the Department of Justice’s PSN program, which aims to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.”