USAO History
United States Attorney's Offices are the main litigating arms of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). There are 94 United States Attorney's Offices, one for each federal judicial district, with ninety-three United States Attorneys serving in those districts to protect the interests of the United States and its citizens. (The same United States Attorney serves both the District of Guam and the District of the Marianna Islands.) Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) working in these offices are trial lawyers for the United States, prosecuting federal crimes and representing the United States in civil litigation in the United States District Courts.
The United States Attorney’s Offices were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, which directed the President to appoint in each federal district “a meet person learned in the law to act as an attorney for the United States.” According to 1 Stat. 92, the United States Attorney was “to prosecute in [each] district all delinquents for crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States, and all civil actions in which the United States shall be concerned.”
Shortly after the passage of the Judiciary Act, President George Washington appointed thirteen distinguished people to fill the offices of United States Attorneys in the newly created federal judicial districts. Among hose first appointed were John Marshall, United States Attorney for Virginia, later the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Christopher Gore of Massachusetts, later governor of that state.
The Central District of California was created by an Act of Congress in 1966. Prior to that time, California had been divided into the Northern and Southern Districts, with the Southern District headquartered in Los Angeles. Manuel L. Real was the United States Attorney for the Southern District at the time the Central District was formed, and he remained in Los Angeles to serve as the first United States Attorney for the newly-designated Central District. Real later went on to become a judge for the United States District Court, and later became its chief judge.
Real was followed in the position by a series of distinguished appointees, many of whom later followed him to the bench as well. Those serving as United States Attorney have included: John Van de Kamp, who later became California’s Attorney General; William Matthew Byrne, who later joined the District Court and became its chief judge; Andrea Ordin, the Central District’s first female United States Attorney; Stephen Trott, who continued his career at the Department of Justice as the Associate Attorney General, and later was appointed to the Ninth Circuit; Robert Bonner, who later served as a district court judge, as well as DEA Administrator and the Director of Customs and Border Protection; and Gary Feess, Lourdes Baird, and Nora Manella, all of whom later became district judges. The three most recent United States Attorneys have been Alejandro Mayorkas, John Gordon, and Debra Wong Yang.