DIVERSITY DWINDLING IN U.S. ATTORNEY RANKS
85% of those confirmed under Trump are white men, well above previous administrations
The nation’s top federal prosecutors have become less diverse under President Donald Trump than under his three predecessors, leaving white men overwhelmingly in charge at a time of national demonstrations over racial inequality and the fairness of the criminal justice system.
Analyzing government data from nearly three decades, The Associated Press found that a persistent lack of diversity in the ranks of U.S. attorneys has reached a nadir in the Trump administration. Eighty-five percent of his Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys are white men, according to AP’s analysis, compared with 58% in Democratic President Barack Obama’s eight years, 73% during Republican George W. Bush’s two terms and, at most, 63% under Democrat Bill Clinton.
White men lead 79 of the 93 U.S. attorney’s offices, including the Chicago office headed by U.S. Attorney John Lausch, in a country where they make up less than a third of the population. Nine current U.S. attorneys are women, two are Black and two Hispanic.
Federal prosecutors can have a profound effect on the criminal justice system, and the leadership of those offices holds immense sway. Without a diverse group considering cases, bias can seep into charging decisions and sentencing recommendations, undermine federal leadership with state and local law enforcement and chip away at the perceived legitimacy of the justice system.
The enduring imbalance leaves U.S. attorneys looking less like the people they serve and is in stark contrast to the population of federal prisons, where a disproportionate share of those incarcerated are Black.
“When you take it in the aggregate, it becomes very evident that the department, as a whole, is simply not valuing diversity at its highest ranks of leadership and not making the most well-informed decisions when those voices are absent from the decision-making process,” said Kenneth Polite Jr., who was U.S. attorney in New Orleans during Obama’s second term. “It would be silly for anyone to suggest the department couldn’t do better.”
The gap is especially relevant in an era in which state and local law enforcement agencies repeatedly are being taken to task over decisions not to prosecute police in the killings of Black people. U.S. prosecutors can be a backstop in those situations by filing federal charges.
That the Trump administration hasn’t appointed top prosecutors who reflect the nation has deepened mistrust in communities frustrated by the Justice Department’s shift away from investigating police practices and Attorney General William Barr’s dismissal of the idea of systemic racism in law enforcement.
Asked about the diversity of U.S. attorneys, White House spokesman Judd Deere declined to answer questions. Instead, Deere said in a written statement that the Trump administration has “worked closely with U.S. senators to identify the best candidates to serve as the chief law enforcement officer in their districts back home.”
Bias can skew prosecutorial decisions
Former prosecutors say that, even among qualified and well-meaning professionals, bias can skew prosecutorial decisions when there isn’t a varied group considering the cases.
That’s something Danny Williams Sr. saw a year after he became the U.S. attorney in Okla