Paul K. Charlton

Paul K. Charlton is a former United States Attorney and currently managing partner at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in the firm’s Phoenix, Arizona office. Charlton concentrates his practice on high-profile and complex litigation, internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense. Charlton also represents a number of Arizona Native American governments, including Ak-Chin, Salt River Pima-Maricopa, Haulapai, the Navajo Nation, and Tohono O'odham.

Prior to joining Steptoe & Johnson LLP, he served at law firm Gallagher & Kennedy. Charlton served as the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona from 2001–2007. He was nominated in November 2001 by President George W. Bush. He oversaw a staff of more than 220 employees, four offices throughout the state, and an approximately $20 million budget. During his tenure, Charlton led enforcement initiatives against terrorism, public corruption, illegal immigration and crime in Indian Country.

Charlton began his legal career in 1989 as an Assistant Attorney General with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. In March 1991, Charlton joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona as an Assistant U.S. Attorney where he prosecuted a wide variety of matters from homicides to complex fraud cases.

Charlton was one of seven U.S. attorneys dismissed on December 7, 2006 by the Bush administration in 2006 for "performance-related issues" (see Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy). Subsequent disclosures revealed that three or more additional attorneys were dismissed under similar circumstances between 2005-2006. Charlton was confirmed as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona on November 6, 2001. Charlton was informed of his dismissal by Justice Department official Michael A. Battle on December 7, 2006, and announced his resignation on December 19, 2006, effective January 31, 2007.

Charlton's office had been honored with the Federal Service Award and hailed by the Justice Department as a "model program" for its protection of crime victims. Charlton ranked in the top third among the nation's 93 US attorneys in contributing to an overall 106,188 federal prosecutions filed in 2006; scored in the top third in number of convictions; oversaw a district in the top five highest in number of immigration-related prosecutions; ranked among the top 20 offices for drug prosecutions; and, unlike in the other seven cases, ranked high in weapons cases, prosecuting 199 of the United States' 9,313 such cases in 2006, the tenth-highest in the country and up fourfold from 2002.

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