Turnover is expected in Arizona’s top federal prosecutor job as the Biden administration ends this month and a new Trump administration starts.
Biden appointee, Gary Restaino, has been U.S. Attorney for Arizona for about three years.
He became an assistant federal prosecutor here in 2003.
Restaino is proud of his work on violent crime, border security, civil rights and community outreach, which were all ingredients in his effort to make Arizona a better place.
“We all have to leave. That’s what we understand (in) taking the political job. I gave up the career protections. It was worth it,” Restaino said.
As part of a pilot program by local authorities and Restaino’s office, certain gun crimes in Pima County have been prosecuted under tougher federal law.
One example of such an offense is possessing a machine-gun-conversion device called a glock switch.
“And there are possession rings and trafficking rings of those devices that are, of course, incredibly dangerous. They allow a handgun to fire automatically,” Restaino said.
Restaino leads about 170 assistant U.S. attorneys. Roughly 20 of them work on Arizona’s many Native American reservations.
Four tribal police officers having died by acts of violent crime in recent years are proof for Restaino that Native communities need more resources.
“Per capita, that’s just a tremendous percentage of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty,” he said.
Two of the late officers worked for the White Mountain Apache police department. One served the Tohono O’odham Nation and the other the Gila River Indian Community.
Phoenix and its police department were under investigation by the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department for most of the Biden administration.
Yet the job of Restaino’s prosecutors also working for a separate part of the Justice Department has been to work together with Phoenix police on putting criminals behind bars.
Restaino’s team recently worked with Phoenix police to seize and shut down the Royal Inn near Interstate 17 and Bethany Home Road because it was allegedly overrun by drugs and prostitution.
On the same September day, the City Council took up public safety reform after a searing civil rights review.
“Some of the things that are raised in that report … things like homelessness, for example, are not specific to the police department. Frankly, they’re not specific to government. These are societal solutions that we need,” Restaino said.
Restaino thinks he’ll be asked to resign on or shortly after Inauguration Day.
He’ll then retire from the Justice Department having worked most of a 20-plus-year career in Arizona.
