Sandra R. Brown named Acting U.S. Attorney for seven-county Central District

The Central District is made up of seven counties — Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo — and is home to roughly 20 million residents.

Brown took charge of the office on Saturday, March 11, after former U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker resigned her position.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions had asked that dozens of remaining Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys — including Decker — step aside to make way for appointees of President Donald Trump.

With about 270 attorneys, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District is the largest Justice Department office outside of Washington, D.C.

For the past year, Brown was the First Assistant U.S. Attorney — the number two position in the office. She has been with the office since 1991, and she was chief of the Tax Division from 2004 through 2016.

Brown called it “a true honor and privilege to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office, home to the nation’s finest prosecutors and staff.”

“Over the past 25 years, I have seen firsthand the dedication, outstanding abilities and contributions of the men and women who represent the United States,” she said. “We will continue our important work, which includes civil and tax litigation; defending the rights of both the government and its agents; and fighting national security threats, violent and organized crime, drug trafficking, hate crimes, financial fraud, public corruption, crimes against children, and the myriad of other threats to our public safety.”

As a federal prosecutor, Brown represented the government in a wide range of matters in federal and state courts, including criminal, civil, appellate and bankruptcy matters.

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