The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Unlike other municipalities, Washington, D.C. is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. By statute, the U.S. Attorney is responsible for prosecuting both federal crimes and all serious crimes committed by adults in the District of Columbia. Therefore, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia serves as both the federal prosecutor (as in the other 92 U.S. Attorneys' offices) and as the local district attorney. The Attorney General of the District of Columbia, who is elected by the people of the District, handles local civil litigation and minor infractions only.
The current U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia is Jessie K. Liu, who was nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in September 2017. Liu replaced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips.
List of U.S. Attorneys for the District of Columbia
- John T. Mason: 1801
- Walter Jones, Jr.: 1801-1821
- Thomas Swann: 1821-1833
- Francis Scott Key: 1833-1841
- Philip Richard Fendall II: 1841-1845
- James Hoban, Jr.: 1845-1846
- Philip Richard Fendall II: 1849-1853
- Philip Barton Key II: 1853-1859
- Robert Ould: 1859-1861
- Edward S. Carrington: 1861-1876
- George P. Fisher: 1870-1875
- Henry H. Wells: 1875-1880
- George B. Corkhill: 1880-1884
- Augustus S. Worthington: 1884-1888
- John B. Hoge: 1888-1891
- Charles Cleaves Cole: 1891-1893
- Arthur A. Birney: 1893-1897
- Henry E. Davis: 1897-1899
- Thomas H. Anderson: 1899-1901
- Ashley M. Gould: 1901-1903
- Morgan H. Beach: 1903-1905
- Daniel W. Baker: 1905-1910
- Clarence R. Wilson: 1910-1914
- John E. Laskey: 1914-1921
- Peyton Gordon: 1921-1928
- Leo A. Rover: 1928-1934
- Leslie C. Garnett: 1934-1937
- David Andrew Pine: 1938-1940
- Edward Matthew Curran: 1940-1946
- George M. Fay: 1946
- George E. McNeil: 1946-1947
- George M. Fay: 1947-1951
- Charles M. Irelan:: 1951-1953
- Leo A. Rover: 1953-1956
- Oliver Gasch: 1956-1961
- David Campion Acheson: 1961-1965
- John C. Conliff, Jr.: 1965
- David G. Bress: 1965-1969
- Thomas Aquinas Flannery: 1969-1971
- Harold H. Titus, Jr.: 1971-1974
- Earl J. Silbert: 1974-1979
- Carl Raul: 1979
- Charles Ruff: 1979-1981
- Stanley S. Harris: 1982-1983
- Joseph diGenova: 1983-1988
- Timothy J. Reardon III (interim): 1988
- Jay B. Stephens: 1988-1993
- J. Ramsey Johnson (interim): 1993
- Eric Holder: 1993-1997
- Mary Lou Leary (interim): July 1997 - January 1998
- Wilma A. Lewis: January 1998 - April 2001
- Roscoe C. Howard: August 2001 รข€" May 2004
- Kenneth L. Wainstein: May 2004 - 2006
- Jeffrey A. Taylor (interim): September 2006 - May 2009
- Ronald Machen: February 2010 - March 2015
- Vincent Cohen, Jr. (interim): April 2015 - October 2015
- Channing D. Phillips: October 2015 - September 2017
- Jessie K. Liu: September 2017 -
References
Sources
- Bicentennial Celebration of the U.S. Attorneys, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. United States Department of Justice, 1989.
- United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
