U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town announces departure from U.S. Attorney’s Office

“After much thoughtful prayer and great personal consideration, I have made the decision to resign as the United States Attorney of the Northern District of Alabama.  I have tendered my resignation to Attorney General William Barr.  General Barr expressed his gratitude for my service to the Department of Justice and to the Northern District and, despite having hoped I would continue in my role, understood and respected my decision.

“I am extremely grateful to President Trump, to whom I also tendered a letter, for his special trust and confidence in me to serve as the U.S. Attorney. It was an honor to be a part of this Administration with an unrivaled class of United States Attorneys from around the nation.  I will forever remain thankful to those who supported my nomination and my tenure as the U.S. Attorney.

“I have been humbled and honored to lead the dedicated men and women of this office that work tirelessly each day.  I have also been so very fortunate to admire the brave men and women of law enforcement – local, state, and federal – who serve this District so honorably and truly are the very best among us.  I believe our collective efforts have made the Northern District of Alabama safer.

“This difficult and personal decision to move on is one that I have been wrangling with for many months. With that being said, I have accepted an incredible opportunity to work for a privately held defense contractor and cybersecurity solutions company located in Huntsville operating in both the government and commercial sectors. My role, which will begin later this year, will be significant but also has the virtue of allowing me to remain much closer to home.  There will be an announcement by the company in a few weeks further explaining my position.

“My service as the U.S. Attorney has been the highest honor of my legal career.  I am saddened to depart, but it is undeniable that I leave behind an incredibly competent and talented team that will always fight for justice here in the great state of Alabama.

The Attorney General of the United States will announce my replacement in the coming days or weeks.”

Under Town’s leadership, the Northern District played a major role in carrying out the priorities of the Department of Justice to reduce violent crime and aggressively address the opioid crisis.  In 2019, the number of defendants charged with federal crimes in the Northern District and the percentage of those defendants sentenced to prison was the highest ever recorded.

In response to the Department of Justice’s renewal of Project Safe Neighborhood initiative, Town developed the Prosecutor-to Prosecutor Program (P3) which designates the combined efforts of state and federal prosecutors to collaborate on the prosecution of the worst offenders when federal sanction is significantly higher than the analogue state sanction.  The P3 Program is now a nationally recognized PSN best practice.

Town also worked closely with federal, state and local law enforcement in Huntsville, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Oxford and other cities, to establish violent crime reduction programs.  Town created the Birmingham Public Safety Task Force and the Huntsville Public Safety Task Force, a strategic partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement to utilize enhanced crime intelligence to aggressively pursue the worst offenders in those communities. The Northern District had three cities – Birmingham, Anniston and Oxford – selected to join the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) initiative. Through the creation of the task forces and participation in the PSP initiative there has been a reduction in violent crime in the Northern District.

During his tenure as U.S. Attorney, Town served as the Chair of the Attorney General’s Servicemembers and Veterans Rights Subcommittee and also served on the Cyber, Law Enforcement Relations, and Manpower, Performance, & Personnel Subcommittees for the Department.  He was one of five United States Attorneys selected to serve on the Attorney General’s China Initiative Steering Committee.  Town was one of three U.S. Attorneys to serve on the ATF’s National Crime Gun Intelligence Governance Board.  He was also the lone U.S. Attorney member of the Attorney General’s Violent Crime Reduction Coordinating Committee.  Town recently completed his primary duties as a Working Group Chair on President Trump’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice.

Town, 46, was appointed by President Trump to the position of United States Attorney in August 2017, and was the second longest serving United States Attorney in the nation.  Prior to his confirmation as United States Attorney, Town, is a former judge advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a senior prosecutor in the Madison County District Attorney’s Office.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr offered the following statement: “I offer my gratitude to Jay Town for his three years of service as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.  Jay’s leadership in his District has been immense.  His contributions to the Department of Justice have been extensive, especially his work on the China Initiative and most recently as a Working Group Chair on the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. I appreciate his service to our nation and to the Justice Department, and I wish him the very best.”