The primary job of the Idaho Attorney General is to serve as the chief legal officer of the state and to represent the state’s legal interests. Some of the other key responsibilities of the office include defending state laws in court, prosecuting criminals, protecting consumers, and providing legal advice and guidance to state officials.
Additionally, I am committed to zealously defending Idaho’s sovereignty, standing up for individual liberty, pushing back against the federal government’s unconstitutional overreach, protecting our values, keeping our families safe, and holding government more accountable to the people.
Over the last few months, my team and I at the Attorney General’s office have been working diligently to protect our state and uphold the principles that make Idaho great.
We started by instituting a new culture in the Attorney General’s office that includes a renewed focus on defending Constitutional freedoms and our state’s sovereignty. We re-established the office of Solicitor General and restructured the Civil Litigation & Constitutional Defense to allow Idaho to directly challenge the Biden administration’s escalating federal overreach.
We are also working to realign our focus to prioritize prosecuting criminals who harm innocent Idahoans, rather than wasting public resources doing things like targeting mothers who took their children to the park.
Instead, we moved two Deputy Attorneys General into the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and added new Investigators and Analysts to the unit, to help find and hold predators accountable. This investment has paid off, with seven arrests already this year thanks to the hard work of this unit.
We are committed to better serving and protecting victims as we focus on prosecuting those who harm them, which is why we created a full-time Victim Witness Coordinator position within the Criminal Law Division.
Prosecuting human traffickers and holding them accountable for their crimes is an important focus for our office, which is why we took the lead on passing a new law making it a crime for anyone to receive any proceeds from illegal sexual activity. This law also includes a provision for our office to provide the Legislature with a report on Idaho’s criminal law related to human trafficking during the next legislative session. The report will include additional recommendations to improve our laws and processes.
We worked with the Legislature to make sure Idaho can legally carry out capital punishment criminal sentences against those who commit the most heinous crimes, even when special interest activists are trying to disrupt the process.
Our office is committed to protecting Idaho taxpayers from fraudsters, and in the first three months of this year, we have filed nearly twice as many insurance fraud cases as were filed all of last year. We also obtained a felony conviction against an individual for Medicaid welfare fraud through forgery, including a judicial order for nearly $250,000 in restitution.
I am proud of the great work we have done and am thankful you have entrusted me with this office. It is an honor and a privilege to serve as your Attorney General.
