John Brownlee depicted in Hulu miniseries Dopesick

Lifetime NAFUSA member John Brownlee and members of his prosecution team are depicted in the Emmy award-winning Hulu miniseries Dopesick for their investigation and prosecution of Purdue Pharma in 2007 for the misleading branding of the opioid OxyContin, an addictive pain killing medication. The miniseries explores the beginning of the opioid crisis and its development through the Grand Jury investigation led by John and two AUSAs in his office from the perspective of Purdue Pharma, the company that aggressively marketed OxyContin, the lawyers and government officials who investigated the misleading branding of the drug, and the doctors and patients impacted.

Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty again in 2021 to criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice related to defrauding federal health agencies and violating anti-kickback laws. A six billion dollar civil settlement was reached earlier this year in a case brought against Purdue Pharma by 23 state Attorneys General and roughly 2000 local governments.

John served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia under George W. Bush from 2001-2008.

Dettelbach Sworn in as ATF Director

 

Lifetime NAFUSA member Steve Dettelbach was sworn in as the new Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on July 13, 2022, by President Joe Biden. Dettelbach was nominated by President Biden on April 22, 2022 and was ultimately confirmed by the Senate on July 12. He is the second-ever Senate-confirmed ATF Director, the first being Todd Jones, who left ATF in 2015. Jones had previously served as United States Attorney for Minnesota under both Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Dettelbach served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
under the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2016. He left that position in 2016 to
return to BakerHofstetler where he served as co-leader of that firm’s White Collar,
Investigations and Securities Enforcement and Litigation Team.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Dettelbach vowed he would not be
influenced by political considerations and promised to uphold the law free from
political interference. In a statement following the confirmation, Attorney General
Merrick B. Garland praised Dettelbach, saying “Steve understands the importance and
urgency of ATF’s mission, and I am confident he will lead ATF with integrity,
dedication, and skill.”

At Dettelbach’s investiture on July 19, the Attorney General referenced the
celebration of ATF’s 50th anniversary founding as an independent agency in June. He
remarked that the ATF’s mission has never been more urgent than it is today. He
praised Dettelbach and thanked him for coming back to the Justice Department and
said that as a career prosecutor and former United States Attorney, “…Steve
understands the importance of ATF’s mission to protect our communities from
violent crime and the scourge of gun violence.

Supreme Court Gives Oklahoma Jurisdiction Over Tribal Lands

The Supreme Court in June ruled 5-4 that the State of Oklahoma can
prosecute non-Native Americans in Indian Country, clawing back part of
its 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma which limited the state’s
jurisdiction in land governed by federal treaties. The McGirt decision
reasoned that the Creek Nation’s reservation in Oklahoma had never
been properly de-established, thus the eastern part of Oklahoma,
including Tulsa, was recognized as Indian Country with exclusive
Federal and Tribal jurisdiction. The Court’s ruling in McGirt’s most
notable consequence was criminal cases being transferred from state
courts to Federal and tribal venues which had exclusive jurisdiction to
prosecute crimes committed by or against an Indian in Indian Country.
The decision greatly increased the criminal caseloads in impacted U.S.
Attorney Offices.

The Court’s latest ruling, Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, took a limited
view of sovereignty of tribes in 21st century America, discounting the
significance of 19th century treaties, and asserted that “Indian country is
part of the State” not separate from it. The opinion, written by Justice
Kavanaugh, reasoned that, as a result, the state retains jurisdiction
there unless Congress expressly suspended it, and held that the Federal
Government and the State of Oklahoma have concurrent jurisdiction to
prosecute crimes committed by a non-Indian against an Indian in Indian Country.

John Wood Launches Senate Campaign

NAFUSA lifetime member John Wood on Wednesday launched his campaign in Missouri for U.S. Senator, running as an Independent to the field of Democratic and Republican candidates. Wood, who served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri from 2007 to 2009 and served in several senior level positions during the Bush Administration, was named Senior Investigative Counsel for the House January 6th Select Committee in September 2021. He resigned as the lead investigator for the Committee last week before launching his bid to run for the U.S. Senate.

Wood graduated from Harvard Law School and was the articles chair of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was named chief legal officer and general counsel to the U.S .Chamber of Commerce in May 2018. Wood is married to Julie Myers Wood, the C.E.O. of NAFUSA sponsor Guidepost Solutions.

To qualify for the November 8 ballot in the race for retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blount’s seat, he must submit 10,000 signatures to the Missouri secretary of state’s office by August 1.

 

NAFUSA Board Elects Richter, Hanaway and Erin Nealy Cox

Pursuant to our bylaws the NAFUSA board has elected lifetime member and current secretary John Richter as president elect to replace Ken Wainstein.

Richter served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, 2005-2009, and the acting assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2009, he received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General’s Award for Combating Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.

Richter also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia and Oklahoma, where he investigated and prosecuted white collar and public corruption cases. He also served as an assistant district attorney in Georgia. While at King & Spalding’s Atlanta office from 1994 to 1998, Richter represented individual and institutional clients in securities and other commercial litigation matters. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

He is currently a partner at King & Spalding.

 

 

Lifetime member Catherine Hanaway has been elected as secretary of NAFUSA.  Catherine is the chair of the Husch Blackwell firm based in St. Louis.  Catherine was US Attorney in the ED of Missouri and Speaker of Missouri’s House of Representatives.

Hanaway has led Husch Blackwell litigation teams on some of the most sensitive and commercially significant matters handled by the firm, including criminal and civil investigations, complex commercial litigation and regulatory enforcement actions. As U.S. Attorney, she supervised more than 4,000 criminal, affirmative and defensive civil cases and personally tried cases to jury verdicts. She also supervised and assisted in the development of cutting-edge theories of criminal prosecution.

Hanaway holds a B.A. from Creighton University and received a J.D. from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.

 

 

Erin Nealy Cox will replace Catherine Hanaway as a board member in the class of 2025.  Cox was the United States Attorney for the ND of Texas as served as the chair of the AGAC.  Cox, then chair of the AGAC, participated in the NAFUSA webinar which was held in October 2020.  Cox is now a partner in Kirkland & Ellis.

Cox received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and her B.B.A. in finance from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of the Texas and New York Bar Associations.

 

 

 

 

Wendy Goggin Named Executive Director of NAFUSA

 

The NAFUSA Board of Directors has selected Wendy Goggin to be our next Executive Director effective July 1, replacing Rich Rossman who retired in April after serving honorably in that position for over eleven years. Rich will remain an active and valued member of NAFUSA.

Wendy retired from the Department of Justice in 2018 and moved back to Nashville after serving as Chief Counsel for the Drug Enforcement Administration for over 14 years. She led a nationwide network of over a hundred attorneys, developed a highly successful Division Counsel Program and managed a multi-million dollar budget, earning a Presidential Rank Award. She served as Attorney General-appointed, and then Court-appointed, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee during the Clinton Administration after previously serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in that office, first in the civil division and then in the criminal division where she prosecuted public corruption and white collar crimes. Prior to being appointed DEA’s Chief Counsel, she served as Counsel for EOUSA’s Office of Legal Programs and Policy.

Wendy is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law and received a B.S. in Communications, journalism major, from UT. Go Vols!

Frank Donaldson, 100, Dies

Frank Donaldson served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1981-1992.

Over the course of his remarkable life he served his country and the people he loved as a P-51 pilot and instructor in World War II, an FBI agent investigating Soviet actions in the US in New York City, the Pacific Northwest and the South during the early days of the Cold War, as a practicing attorney and law professor, as United States Attorney for more than a decade, as a legal scholar and writer, religious teacher and student, and through ongoing contributions in the arena of state and national political affairs.

Donaldson passed away on June 2, 2022.  He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Patti, his son David and his daughters Sharon and Susan.

As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request an American flag was flown in John’s honor over Main Justice and will be presented to his family as a token of the esteem with which he was held by his colleagues.

Preet Bharara joins WilmerHale

NAFUSA member Preet Bharara joins Wilmer Hale.  Bharara served as US Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2009-2017.  Bharara served as Assistant US Attorney for 5 years prior to leading the district. Since leaving the U.S. Attorney’s post, Bharara has served as a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s law school and hosted a weekly podcast called “Stay Tuned with Preet”, which features long-form interviews with prominent guests. WilmerHale said he plans to keep podcasting and will remain creative director of the podcast company Cafe, which was acquired by Vox Media last year.

Mr. Bharara said he expected his role to include a focus on issues of E.S.G., or environmental, social and governance. That area can include how companies treat employees, encourage diversity and equitable practices and battle climate change.

Bharara is a graduate of Columbia Law School and received his undergraduate from Harvard.

 

Ken Wainstein Confirmed as DHS Under Secretary

NAFUSA board member and president elect Ken Wainstein was confirmed to Lead the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis on Tuesday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas released the following statement on the confirmation of Kenneth L. Wainstein as Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis:

“I thank the Senate for confirming Kenneth L. Wainstein to lead DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), and I am incredibly proud to welcome him to the Department. Ken is an extraordinarily dedicated and talented public servant with decades of government experience during both Democratic and Republican Administrations. I am confident that his expertise in national security, counterterrorism, and intelligence will greatly benefit our Department and our country as we continue to combat evolving threats. I look forward to working with Ken as he leads I&A in its critical mission to share timely and actionable information and intelligence with our partners across every level of government, in the private sector, local communities, and the public to help keep Americans safe.”

The NAFUSA board will select his successor before the next board meeting in Austin, TX at the end of October.