Atlanta federal prosecutor sidesteps Trump Justice Department chaos — so far

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Law enforcement news conferences touting major drug busts are far from new. But this one was an example of how Georgia’s most prominent federal law enforcement official is approaching his new role.

At a time when the U.S. Department of Justice and its regional prosecutors’ offices are in the spotlight amid allegations of chaos, presidential meddling and the loss of independence, Hertzberg is largely showcasing the bread-and-butter crime-fighting work he and his staff are undertaking. At the same time, he’s taking care not to run afoul of Trump.

In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hertzberg, known to friends and colleagues as Teddy, emphasized his staff’s successes bringing justice to fraudsters, drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations. Those are in line with goals laid out by the White House, and he suggested they could also help deter crime and build public trust.

At the same time, Hertzberg acknowledged the internal challenges of this unique political moment. His office lost 53 employees in the last fiscal year, more than double the average departure rate of the past decade. And Hertzberg said employee morale has suffered in the aftermath of the recent record-breaking government shutdown.

Despite that, Hertzberg insists his staff is continuing to deliver results, breaking a 14-year record on cases filed, even as it’s being asked to do more with less. He’s been able, at least for now, to avoid the negative headlines of his counterparts’ offices in eastern Virginia, where leaders were pressured by the White House to seek charges against Trump’s political enemies, or in states like New Jersey, California and Nevada, where judges booted interim U.S. attorneys selected by the administration after their initial terms had expired.

“I’m not really focused on what’s happening in Washington or what’s happening in other parts of the country and how they’re engaging with Washington,” Hertzberg said.

“I’ve been able to operate without any distraction or interference because we are achieving so much, and what we’re achieving is important to the administration. But more importantly, it’s important to the community.”

An unconventional pick

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Georgia is one of the largest in the Southeast, working on behalf of some 7.5 million Georgians in a 46-county chunk of the state that includes metro Atlanta. It prosecutes federal crimes and litigates and defends civil cases in which the U.S. government is a party.

The office’s leadership over the years has included boldface names in the legal world such as David Nahmias, who would go on to serve as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court; Sally Yates, who later made headlines for defying Trump’s immigration orders as the acting leader of the U.S. Department of Justice during the early days of Trump’s first term; and former Georgia U.S. Rep. Bob Barr.

Despite being an almost 10-year DOJ veteran, Hertzberg, 43, was a somewhat unusual pick when Attorney General Pam Bondi elevated him to lead the office on an interim basis in May. He had been working as a line prosecutor in the Northern District, trying violent crime-related cases. But he wasn’t a supervisor, nor did he hold a senior position at an outside firm, as did his immediate predecessors.

Despite that, people who have worked with Hertzberg describe him as an exceptional lawyer with a clear enthusiasm for the job, the kind of old-school prosecutor who works diligently to button up his cases — not an ideologue blinded by politics.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“He’s very meticulous,” said BJay Pak, who hired Hertzberg in 2018 when Pat was U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia during Trump’s first term. Good prosecutors, Pak said, have solid relationships with law enforcement but are able to push back when the evidence doesn’t add up. They “have to have the backbone, and be willing to speak their mind. … I had no qualms about him being able to do that.”

That reputation helped Hertzberg this September, when the judges on the Northern District — the majority of whom were nominated by Democratic presidents — swiftly voted to appoint him to the position after his initial four-month term expired. Over the years, Hertzberg had tried cases in front of all of them as an assistant U.S. attorney.

One of them was Timothy Batten, who was chief judge on that court until his retirement this spring before the vote on Hertzberg.

“He is never unprepared, and he’s especially good on his feet,” Batten said. “He’s very nimble and smart, a formidable adversary.”

Campus Republican to top prosecutor

Growing up in a liberal Jewish family on Long Island, Hertzberg learned to debate and defend his law-and-order conservative beliefs at the dinner table. (He once joked that his father, who worked in finance and earlier in his career had authored a book about Atlanta’s early Jewish community, might have preferred him to have tattoos and piercings rather than identify as a Republican.)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Hertzberg said he chose to attend Amherst College, a small and progressive liberal arts school in Massachusetts, to hone his ability to debate issues respectfully.

As a token campus Republican, Hertzberg waged an unsuccessful campaign during his freshman year to join a faculty committee on an anti-affirmative action platform. Two years later, he prevailed in his effort to eliminate so-called diversity seats on the student association. His efforts drew the attention of conservative media stalwarts such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.

A profile of Hertzberg in the student newspaper the year he graduated described him as simultaneously being at “the center of a good deal of controversy” and “carving out places for new thoughts, ideas and partnerships.”

“To me, it wasn’t simply a matter of making the point, it was about having the discussion,” Hertzberg recalled.

After graduating from law school, Hertzberg spent several years at a New York City law firm focused on white collar criminal defense.

Soon the young lawyer had moved to Savannah to fulfill his dream of becoming a U.S. attorney, working on asset forfeiture cases. But his true passion was for criminal cases, so in 2018 he jumped at the chance to move to Atlanta and focus on that work full-time.

In the Northern District, Hertzberg prosecuted cases involving drug trafficking, firearms, telemarketing fraud, sexual assault and, in more recent years, child exploitation.

Asked about the work he’s proudest of, Hertzberg mentioned a case he prosecuted against Stacy Keith Wisener, a Paulding County mail carrier. Wisener was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an underage girl, producing child pornography and stealing mail.

Hertzberg used his knowledge of asset forfeiture laws to have the proceeds from the sale of Wisener’s home go toward restitution for the young victim.

Working cases

Since taking the reins at the Northern District, Hertzberg has continued to personally prosecute cases, which is somewhat unusual for DOJ supervisors. The week in November that the AJC interviewed him for this story, he had three sentencing hearings for child exploitation cases.

Hertzberg said he intends to keep working cases himself as long as they don’t negatively impact his other responsibilities. And he’s urging other supervisors to do the same.

Part of that is out of necessity — the office is at its lowest staffing level in roughly two decades, Hertzberg said.

At the time of the AJC’s interview in mid-November, the Northern District had 144 attorneys and support personnel on staff, according to Hertzberg, compared to roughly 211 employees about a year earlier. Some of the departures included senior leaders, including the former heads of the criminal and appellate divisions.

Hertzberg attributed some of the resignations to the retirement incentives the Trump administration offered earlier this year. He said a second group left to make more money in the private sector. Others departed because they were unhappy with the Trump administration.

Hertzberg believes former colleagues in the third group jumped to conclusions too quickly.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“What we do here is not political, it’s law and order. It’s about making the community safe,” he said. “And so I think that those were unfortunate, ill-informed and premature judgments that some folks made.”

He added, “no one has interfered with my desire to focus on law-and-order issues in the Northern District of Georgia.”

Internally, he’s sought to move cases through the system more quickly, including by streamlining decision-making processes.

“Our office used to be known for paralysis by analysis,” he said.

‘Make the tough choices’

His office has also reportedly been involved in a few high-profile cases with a political bent.

Reuters reported this fall that it is aiding the criminal mortgage fraud probe against Lisa Cook, the U.S. Federal Reserve governor Trump sought to fire.

And Hertzberg’s office has reportedly been spearheading an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, issuing several dozen subpoenas, according to The New York Times.

Hertzberg declined to comment on both cases.

This month he announced unemployment fraud charges against a Democratic state lawmaker accused of illegally collecting pandemic-era aid. He denied that the charges were political and added that more could be coming against people inside and outside the government.

Robert Marcovitch, a professor at Emory University School of Law who worked as a federal prosecutor in Atlanta in the 1990s, said historically U.S. attorneys have largely been left alone by political leaders.

“But never in my life as a lawyer have I ever seen anything like this,” he said, referring to recent news developments, such as Trump reportedly pressuring prosecutors in Virginia to indict his political enemies including former FBI Director Jim Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Marcovitch said he didn’t know Hertzberg, but noted that “you could be apolitical and be fulfilling the traditional mission of a U.S. attorney, but at any given moment in seems like in this administration your life could get turned upside down.”

Pak, Hertzberg’s former boss who resigned in the final weeks of the first Trump administration after pushing back on the president’s claims that there was widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 vote count, said it is important for anyone in the role of U.S. attorney to maintain their independence and “make tough calls.”

“With respect to Teddy, I don’t know how much oversight or pressure he’s getting. I hope nothing … but I have confidence that he has the judgment to make the right choices when necessary,” Pak said.

In his early months on the job, Hertzberg has put an emphasis on reaching out to local law enforcement in metro Atlanta and beyond.

In Atlanta, he has assigned members of his staff to participate in crime suppression nights. Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the extra resources help send a message to would-be perpetrators.

“Teddy is everywhere, and he’s asking, ‘What can we do, and how can we work with you?’” Schierbaum said. “I’ve been impressed by his focus and his energy since he’s been there.”

DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said Hertzberg was the first law enforcement official to offer assistance in August after a gunman opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and killed a police officer.

“That’s a meaningful partnership and relationship and that’s essential when things happen for there to be that line of communication,” she said.

Staff writer Rosie Manins contributed to this article.