U.S. Attorney John Walsh is stepping down from his position as the leading federal prosecutor in Colorado overseeing criminal prosecutions and federal civil cases across the state, according to authorities.
Walsh, 55, is the chairman of the influential national Attorney General Advisory Committee, helping to direct activities by federal prosecutors across the country.
Walsh, whose last day is Aug. 10, will return to private practice in Denver, although he has not yet begun to search for a new position. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer will take over as the acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado, according to a news release.
“The men and women of the Colorado United States Attorney’s Office, along with their federal law enforcement partners, are unsung heroes who work quietly, fiercely and round-the-clock to do justice and to protect the people of the United States and of Colorado,” Walsh said in a statement on Friday. “The opportunity to work with these dedicated and talented professionals, and to work on their behalf to help further their great mission for our country and our wonderful state, has been the greatest professional honor of my life.”
President Barack Obama appointed Walsh on Aug. 10, 2010. Walsh, one of the longest-serving U.S. attorneys in the nation, has served longer than any other U.S. attorney in Colorado history.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Walsh as chair of the national committee when the prior chairperson, Loretta E. Lynch, was appointed U.S. Attorney General in January 2015.
“U.S. Attorney John Walsh has served the people of the District of Colorado and the entire nation with extraordinary distinction,” Lynch said in a statement Friday. “For the past six years, John has protected our civil liberties, defended our national security, and aggressively and successfully prosecuted organized crime, drug cartels and gang violence.”
Walsh played a key leadership role on the team that won a landmark $7 billion settlement against Citibank, securing millions for defrauded consumers in the largest settlement in the history of the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s office, and one of the largest settlements in the Justice Department’s history, Lynch added.
The Attorney General Advisory Committee was created in 1973 to serve as the voice of the U.S. Attorneys and to advise the attorney general on policy, management and operational issues impacting the offices of the U.S. Attorneys.
The committee serves as a policy conduit from the field — where about 10,000 federal prosecutors and attorneys practice throughout the country — to Washington, D.C., as well as from Washington to the field.
After the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015, he created and sponsored seminars to protect houses of worship that were attended by more than 1,000 faith leaders, the news release says.
Walsh served on the AGAC from February 2011 to January 2013 as the chair of the Medical Marijuana Working Group and co-chair of the White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee. Walsh helped shepherd federal resources to support local law enforcement in cases of mass violence, including the Aurora theater shooting in 2012 and the Planned Parenthood office shooting on Nov. 27.
During Walsh’s administration, some of the high-profile cases that his prosecutors handled were an illegal immigration case against Kefelegn Alemu Worku, responsible for killings during Ethiopia’s “Red Terror”; the wide-scale indictment of 80 drug-trafficking suspects in “Operation Double Trouble”; and several terror-related cases, including the one against Shannon Conley, who was headed to the Middle East to join the Islamic State terrorist group when FBI agents arrested her in 2014.
“I can’t take credit for all their work but for facilitating their work and then getting out of the way,” Walsh said Friday.
He said he was grateful for the opportunity he has had to do a job that helps protect the people of Colorado and the people of the United States.
Walsh hasn’t begun looking for a new job to avoid any possible conflict of interest, he said.
“I’ll start this process now,” Walsh said.
He said he hopes to find a position that will enable him to continue serving the public.
“Public service is my passion,” Walsh said. “I intend to do much more of that.”
