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Top U.S. Attorney Hints at DOJ Priorities Next Year

By Andrew Ramonas

NEW YORK — A senior U.S. Attorney on Saturday suggested that federal prosecutors will put an emphasis on fighting cyber crimes and enforcing environmental laws next year.

B. Todd Jones (photo by Andrew Ramonas / Main Justice)

Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, who is the chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, said U.S. Attorneys will meet in November to discuss efforts to target Internet criminals and violators of environmental laws, in addition to conferring about work on national security, civil rights and health care fraud issues.

“The U.S. Attorney conference in this coming November is really focused in on a couple of areas and … this will give you some clues of us trying to pivot from a reactive mode to a proactive mode,” Jones said at the annual National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys conference.

Jones said his colleagues are finding that the Internet is a major platform for criminal activities, including child pornography production and fraud. He said they plan to discuss efforts to move beyond existing means for dealing with cyber criminals, and train prosecutors to better handle these matters.

The U.S. Attorney also said his counterparts will meet with officials from various federal agencies to increase their knowledge of environmental criminal enforcement, in light of matters like the BP oil spill this summer.

But Jones said the conference will also reemphasize some of the existing priorities of the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder.

The U.S. Attorney said the upcoming conference will have a “pretty good section of time” for discussion on civil rights issues. He noted that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez of the Civil Rights Division has boosted efforts to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act and combat human trafficking.

Jones also said “some time” will be devoted to talks on health care fraud. The DOJ under Holder has expanded its Medicare Fraud Strike Force and taken advantage of new powers approved by Congress to better combat health care fraud.

But the U.S. Attorney said national security issues remain at the forefront of the DOJ’s agenda as “the saga continues.”

“I think bottom line [is] each U.S. Attorney new or holdover or acting understands that mission number one for us really is the national security challenge,” Jones said.

Full post as published by Main Justice on October 09, 2010 (boomark / email).