Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr.
United States Attorney 
Southern District of Texas
Sworn in on March 17, 2006, Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr. became the 21st Presidentially-appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
President George W. Bush nominated DeGabrielle to serve as United States Attorney for this district Feb. 13, 2006, on the recommendation of United States Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. The full Senate unanimously confirmed his appointment March 13, 2006.
He currently serves on the Terrorism and National Security and Border and Immigration Subcommittees to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and chairs the Regional Information Sharing Working Group.
Prior to his appointment as this District's United States Attorney, DeGabrielle served the District as the First Assistant United States Attorney since January 2002, and has a total of 24 years of federal law enforcement service including service as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1979-1982.
DeGabrielle began his service as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1986 in this District's headquarters office in Houston. DeGabrielle has prosecuted a varied array of significant federal cases including those involving public corruption, white collar crime, bank fraud, violent crime and criminal organizations involved in trafficking narcotics and human beings. He has also served as the Chief of the Criminal Division supervising the prosecutorial efforts of Assistant United States Attorneys.
Given his extensive prosecutorial experience, the Department of Justice has called upon DeGabrielle to share his legal knowledge and expertise with others. He has been frequently invited to participate in training conferences and seminars throughout the United States, presenting lectures on a variety of legal topics and issues to thousands of criminal law enforcement officers and prosecutors. DeGabrielle also has the distinction of being one of very few who are selected to serve as a Resident Legal Advisor to the South African National Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
During his career as a federal prosecutor, DeGabrielle has successfully prosecuted a number of significant federal cases resulting in his being recognized for his outstanding and superior performance with numerous letters of commendation from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the prestigious Department of Justice's Director's Award for Superior Performance by an Assistant United States Attorney.
Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office, DeGabrielle was an Assistant District Attorney for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office in New Orleans, La., where he rose to the position of Chief of Trials. He has also practiced as an associate attorney with an admiralty law firm in New Orleans.
Born in Lake Charles, La., DeGabrielle is a graduate of McNeese State University with a Bachelor of Administration in humanities and earned his law degree from Louisiana State University Law Center, Baton Rouge, La., in 1978.
As the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, DeGabrielle is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the district responsible for the investigation and prosecution of individuals who violate federal law, the coordination of multiple-agency investigations and the representing and defending all civil lawsuits or proceedings in which the United States is a party. In this district, the United States Attorney oversees a staff of more than 300 attorneys and support staff and manages a budget of more than $32 million.
Don DeGabrielle is the United States Attorney for one of the largest of the nation's 94 federal judicial districts. The Southern District of Texas consists of 43 counties from Huntsville to Laredo and includes the metropolitan region centered by Houston, the Texas Gulf Coast region with the Padre Island National Seashore and Wildlife Preserve, the King Ranch and other vast ranch lands and the United States-Mexico border along the stretch of the Rio Grande River from Brownsville to Laredo. Houston is headquarters for the district. Staffed branch offices are located within the district at Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen and Victoria.