What you should know
- The new US attorney in Manhattan said Friday that he is forming a Civil Rights Unit in his office’s criminal division. This to accommodate greater resources in those problems that get worse in “difficult times.”
- US Attorney Damian Williams made the comments after he was formally sworn in as the first high-ranking African-American federal officer in the Southern District of New York.
- Williams said the civil rights unit in the office’s criminal division was an improvement “whose time has come.” The office’s civil division also has a civil rights unit, created in 1971.
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Manhattan’s new US attorney said Friday he is establishing a Civil Rights Unit in his office’s criminal division to focus more resources on problems that get worse in “tough times.”
United States Attorney Damian Williams made the remarks after being sworn in as the first high-ranking African-American federal officer in the Southern District of New York, one of the busiest offices in the country, before Manhattan’s Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor. Swain.
“White supremacist groups are on the march. Anti-Semitism is on the march. Anti-Asian violence is on. The abuse of the most vulnerable in our society is ongoing, and that includes, by the way, the abuse of incarcerated women and men who lose their freedom but not their right to be safe, ”Williams said.
Williams also said the civil rights unit in the office’s criminal division was an improvement “whose time has come.” The office’s civil division also has a civil rights unit, created in 1971.
Williams said she plans to interact with community partners, religious groups, advocacy organizations and youth “to let them know that they have my attention and my ear.”
He also added that “I also know that this is not enough because you know and I know that we are living in difficult times.”
The remarks were given to some 500 current and former law enforcement personnel who gathered to hear Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Garland praising Williams as the right leader for the moment in the Harlem Armory, which some once housed a highly praised United States Army infantry known as the “Harlem Hellfighters“.
The Hellfighters, who spent more days fighting in World War I than any other army regiment, were commanded by Colonel William Hayward, a white lawyer who became a Manhattan prosecutor in 1921. He hired Manhattan’s first black federal prosecutor, a former Hellfighter, and also the first female prosecutor in the office.
Williams, 41, once served as Garland’s paralegal when he was a federal circuit judge in Washington and was recommended by Schumer for the position of U.S. attorney.
In her speech, Williams thanked her family and her recent predecessors, including Audrey Strauss, whom she replaced when her nomination was confirmed several weeks ago; Preet Bharara, who hired him; and Joon Kim, who he said “saw something special in me.”
He sparked sustained applause when he mentioned Geoffrey S. Berman, a Republican who served as a United States attorney for much of Donald Trump’s presidential term. Berman made a name for himself in what prosecutors like to affectionately call the “Sovereign District of New York” for standing up to Washington’s demands and left office in June 2020 after a confrontation with then-Attorney General William Barr over investigations into Trump’s allies.
Williams said Berman promoted him and “when the hour called for true courage and independence and a demonstration of what it means to be a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, he showed the entire United States what that means.”
The prosecutor also announced that he plans to prioritize the fight against armed violence and prosecution of corruption in financial markets. Other former senior prosecutors in attendance were David N. Kelley and Mary Jo White.
Rudy Giuliani, a former US attorney from Manhattan who is now being investigated by that same office on whether he violated the law was absent when he failed to register as an agent of a foreign country for his foreign dealings. Giuliani has said he did nothing wrong and was working for Trump at the time as his personal attorney.
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