Monty Wilkinson was appointed Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) by Attorney General Holder on March 29, 2014, succeeding the retiring Marshall Jarrett. The Executive Office, created in 1953, provides general guidance and support to the 94 United States Attorneys’ offices and its nearly 10,000 employees.

Prior to being appointed Director, Wilkinson served as the Principal Deputy Director and Chief of Staff of EOUSA.  He previously served as Counselor and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, an Associate Deputy Attorney General, and held senior management positions for nearly a decade in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.  Wilkinson started his career at the Department of Justice as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division, serving in the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.

In announcing the appointment, Attorney General Holder said,

Monty is a tremendous asset to the Department, and I am grateful he has agreed to take on this enormous responsibility. I look forward to continuing to work closely with him and the U.S. Attorneys as we continue our critical mission to provide justice for the American people.

Wilkinson is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Georgetown University Law Center.

WilmerHale announced today that Robert S. Mueller III has joined the firm as a partner in their Washington office. Mueller completed 12 years last fall as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a position he took one week prior to the September 11 attacks and held under two presidents.

In its press release, WilmerHale said:

As FBI Director, Mr. Mueller managed the transition of the FBI into an agency that dealt not only with the hardest criminal justice matters, but also with the most challenging national security issues, including cybersecurity threats. He brings to the firm his broad range of experience as a career prosecutor, an ability to lead the most sensitive investigations, his steady hand in managing crises, and unquestioned integrity. He will enhance and build on WilmerHale’s investigations and strategic counseling practices.

 

Mueller was a United States Marine Corps officer, an Assistant United States Attorney in three different offices, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, and the longest-serving Director of the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover.

Mueller currently holds a teaching appointment at Stanford University, and will spend time in WilmerHale’s West Coast offices. He also serves as Executive-in-Residence for Georgetown University. From 1993-1995, he was a partner at Hale and Dorr LLP, before the firm combined with Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP a decade ago.

Mueller earned his law degree in 1973 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Law Review. He received an MA in international relations from New York University in 1967, and graduated from Princeton University with an AB in 1966.

In testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission on March 13, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed a proposed change in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that would lower the levels for the base offense for various quantities for drug trafficking crimes. If adopted, the change would reduce the average sentence for low-level drug offenders by nearly a year. The Commission projects that if the proposal is adopted, the Bureau of Prison population would drop by 6,550 inmates at the end of five years.

The Commission first proposed the change in January and is expected to vote on it by April. In the meantime, the Justice Department will direct prosecutors not to object if defendants seek to have the newly proposed guidelines applied during sentencing.

Click here to view the Department’s press release and Holder’s testimony before the Commission.

H. Marshall Jarrett, director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), announced his retirement yesterday. Jarrett was appointed director of EOUSA on April 13, 2009.

Prior to assuming the position of director, Jarrett served as counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility, where he supervised investigations of professional misconduct by Department of Justice attorneys. He has served as an associate deputy attorney general and as deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section. In addition, he has served as chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and as criminal chief and first assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

In an email announcing his retirement to the current U.S. Attorneys, Jarrett reflected on his career and the good fortune he has had to work with so many remarkable people. In his email, Jarrett said:

I’ve had the privilege to serve with the most talented and dedicated public servants in the country.  I will miss coming to work each day and standing shoulder to shoulder with you and our other extraordinary colleagues throughout the United States Attorneys’ community to help ensure that justice is served for the American people. In particular, it has been extremely gratifying to witness firsthand your perseverance, dedication, and commitment to excellence during a very challenging period.

Jarrett is a recipient of the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice and has been conferred the rank of meritorious executive in the senior executive service. He has also received a Presidential Rank Award for his meritorious executive service.

Jarrett also served as deputy director of the enforcement division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as a deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law.

In a video message released today, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that, due to  the budget agreement approved by Congress last month, the Justice Department is able to lift the hiring freeze that has been in place for just over three years.

In his message, Holder said:

In recent years, federal employees have been asked to contend with sharp budget cuts, sequestration, and the personal hardships imposed by a government shutdown.  Here at the Department of Justice, these conditions have strained our capacity.  And they’ve compelled us to take extraordinary measures just to make ends meet – including a hiring freeze that I was forced to institute in 2011, and which has resulted in the loss of more than 4,000 employees.

 

These losses have been acutely felt.  But finally, after years of uncertainty, Congress recently passed – and the President signed – a bipartisan budget agreement that allowed our appropriators to restore Justice Department funding to pre-sequestration levels – and even adds funding for key priorities.  As a result of this budget agreement, effective immediately, the Department will lift the hiring freeze that’s been in place for just over three years.  After years of doing more with less, we will begin to fill critical vacancies.  And we will resume the normal hiring process for federal agents, prosecutors, analysts and the other staff we need to fulfill our mission.  These added resources will help us carry out our critical law enforcement responsibilities and improve public safety.

On January 28, 2014, the Attorney General announced the appointment of eight U.S. Attorneys to serve two-year terms on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC). The new members are: André Birotte Jr., Central District of California; Thomas E. Delahanty II, District of Maine; Zachary T. Fardon, Northern District of Illinois; Wifredo A. Ferrer, Southern District of Florida; Kerry B. Harvey, Eastern District of Kentucky; Zane D. Memeger, Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Tim Q. Purdon, District of North Dakota; and Sarah R. Saldaña, Northern District of Texas.

The following eight U.S. Attorneys have completed their two-year terms and are rotating off the committee: Laura E. Duffy, Southern District of California; Timothy J. Heaphy, Western District of Virginia; Brendan V. Johnson, District of South Dakota; Pamela C. Marsh, Northern District of Florida; Carmen M. Ortiz, District of Massachusetts; Robert L. Pitman, Western District of Texas; James Santelle, Eastern District of Wisconsin; Carter M. Stewart, Southern District of Ohio.

Loretta E. Lynch, Eastern District of New York, continues as the chair of the AGAC and Sally Quillian Yates, Northern District of Georgia, continues as the vice chair.

Click here to read the Department’s press release which contains a brief bio of the new appointees.

Comment Deadline: February 15, 2014

The Judicial Conference Advisory Committees on Bankruptcy and Civil Rules have proposed amendments to their respective rules and forms, and have requested that the proposals be circulated for comment.  The affected rules are:

Bankruptcy Rules: 2002, 3002, 3007,! 3012, 3015, 4003, 5005, 5009, 7001, and 9006

Bankruptcy Forms: 17A, 17B, 17C, 22A-1, 22A-1 Supp. 22A-2, 22B, 22C-1, 22C-2, 101, 101A, 101B, 104, 105, 106Sum., 106A/B, 106C, 106D, 106E/F, 106G, 106H, 106Dec, 107, 112, 113, 119, 121, 318, 423, and 427

Civil Rules:  1, 4, ! 6, 16, 26, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 55, 84 and Appendix of Forms.

The proposed amendments, the Rules Committee reports explaining the proposed changes, and other information are posted on the Judiciary’s website athttp://www.uscourts.gov/RulesAndPolicies/rules/proposed-amendments.aspx.  Comments concerning the proposed amendments may be submitted electronically by following the instructions on the website.  Hard copy submission may be mailed to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Administrative Office of the Unite! d States Courts, Suite 7-240, Washington, D.C. 20544.

On December 9, 2013, several members of NAFUSA joined former judges, prosecutors and law enforcements officials, in signing a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Michael Lee in support for their bill to reform federal sentencing contained in the Smarter Sentencing Act (S.1410, H.R. 3382), stating:

Your bill represents an important step in promoting public safety and addressing the consequences of federal mandatory minimum sentences on the explosive growth in incarceration costs and the fairness of sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

Click here to view Letter re Smarter Sentencing Act 12-9-13

In a related development, Charlie Savage reported on the front page of this morning’s New York Times (Obama Curbs Sentences of 8 In Crack Cases) that President Obama on Thursday, December 19, 2013, commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who were convicted of crack cocaine offenses.

Savage wrote:

It was the first time retroactive relief was provided to a group of inmates who would most likely have received significantly shorter terms if they had been sentenced under current drug laws, sentencing rules and charging policies. Most will be released in 120 days. The commutations opened a major new front in the administration’s efforts to curb soaring taxpayer spending on prisons and to help correct what it has portrayed as inequality in the justice system.

Savage cites Families Against Mandatory Minimums that about 8,800 federal inmates are serving time for crack offenses committed before Congress  reduced prospective mandatory minimum sentences in 2010.