BEAUMONT, Texas — A Port Arthur native who has spent decades serving and protecting is now the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, according to a Tuesday night news release from the US Attorney’s Office.
Brit Featherston was appointed to the position by Attorney General Merrick Garland, and he took the oath of office from Chief US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap.
“This is my home. Serving and protecting the great citizens of East Texas has been my priority for a long time and it will continue into the future,” Featherston said.
Featherston, 61, of Lumberton, is the chief federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of Texas. The district includes 43 counties stretching from the Oklahoma border to the Gulf of Mexico.
He is responsible for the prosecution of federal criminal offenses in the district and will represent the United States in all civil litigation in the district, according to the release.
Featherston prosecuted high-profile cases such as the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper County. He was also named instrumental in crisis management operations during Southeast Texas hurricanes, the release says.
The Eastern District of Texas includes six fully staffed law enforcement offices in Beaumont, Plano, Tyler, Sherman, Texarkana, and Lufkin with 120 employees, including 60 prosecutors.
Read full news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office here...
Brit Featherston has taken the oath of office to become the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. Featherston was appointed to the position by Attorney General Merrick Garland and took the oath of office from Chief U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap.
“This is my home; serving and protecting the great citizens of East Texas has been my priority for a long time and it will continue into the future,” said U.S. Attorney Featherston. “I am blessed to work with a dedicated team of professionals who make it their daily mission to protect the citizens of this great country. I also look forward to jointly working with our law enforcement partners who bravely protect our communities every day.”
Featherston, 61, of Lumberton, is the chief federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of Texas, which includes 43 counties stretching from the Oklahoma border to the Gulf of Mexico. The district includes six fully staffed offices in Beaumont, Plano, Tyler, Sherman, Texarkana, and Lufkin with 120 employees, including 60 prosecutors. Featherston is responsible for the prosecution of federal criminal offenses in the district and will represent the United States in all civil litigation in the district.
Since joining the office in 1996, Featherston has served in the capacity of First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, and supervisory U.S. Attorney. He was also appointed Acting United States Attorney in September 2016 and served in that capacity for 17 months. In January 2018, Featherston became the Justice Attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. In addition to prosecuting high-profile cases such as the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper County, Featherston has been instrumental in crisis management operations during numerous Southeast Texas hurricanes, as well as assisting in the establishment of a command post and the investigation and prosecution of crimes related to the space shuttle crash in 2003 in Lufkin.
Featherston was honored to have former United States Attorney Malcolm Bales and his brother, Tom Featherston, by his side as he took his oath of office from Judge Gilstrap this afternoon. Wife, Amy, and son, Ben, joined the ceremony by video from Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where Ben has been in ICU since Sep. 30th recovering from a sudden illness. Ben is a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin and daughter, Anna, is a senior at Texas A&M University in College Station.
For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-edtx.