Jason R. Coody

The Office of the United States Attorney for Northern District of Florida welcomes the newly appointed Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for the district. Jason R. Coody is taking over in the Office by virtue of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, following the resignation of the outgoing U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe. The shift within the highest position in the Office was in line with the transitioning of the Biden Administration into position. Acting U.S. Attorney General Robert M. Wilkinson made the announcement to request the 55 remaining Trump-appointed Top Federal Prosecutors to vacate their posts, U.S. Attorney Keefe, included. Lawrence Keefe will have his last day in the Office as U.S. Attorney on February 28, 2021, and will be replaced by Jason Coody, effective March 1, 2021.

 

Appointment

Jason R. Coody takes over in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida after a recent appointment as the new interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for the district. Coody is to replace the outgoing U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe, whose resignation will be effective on February 28, 2021. Keefe is one of the 55 U.S. Attorneys who have been appointed by former President Donald Trump previously and who are now being requested to step down from their posts to cater to the transitioning of President Joe Biden into position, as noted in the announcement made by Acting U.S. Attorney General Robert M. Wilkinson on February 9, 2021. By virtue of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Acting United States Attorney Coody will officially be interim Top Federal Prosecutor for the Northern District of Florida beginning on March 1, 2021, and is bound to remain in the position for 300 days or until the time that the Biden administration has successfully appointed a new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

 

Education Background, Early Professional Career, and Law Internship

Jason Coody earned his undergraduate degree from the Valdosta State University in 1996 and subsequently received his Juris Doctorate from the Washburn University School of Law in 2002. Prior to pursuing a law career and entering law school, U.S. Attorney Coody first served as a law enforcement officer with the Valdosta Police Department. He performed duties as a Patrolman and then later as a Detective throughout his approximately eight years of service within the Valdosta Police Department. After law school, U.S. Attorney Jason Coody had his internship with the city of Topeka as an Assistant City Attorney.

 

Legal Career

With an intensive background in career prosecution, U.S. Attorney Coody has dedicated almost three decades of his life to serving the public, two of which has been devoted to prosecuting federal criminal violations in government service. Acting U.S. Attorney Coody launched his legal career by joining the Office of the Shawnee County District Attorney in Topeka, Kansas. In this capacity, Jason Coody was made responsible for prosecuting crimes, with emphasis on cases involving domestic violence and the sexual assault of children.

The approximately 16 years of service of Acting U.S. Attorney Coody in the Department of Justice began in 2005 when he was appointed as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas. Primarily, U.S. Attorney Coody focused on the prosecution of crimes involving firearms, narcotics, and other violent criminal matters as a part of the Project Safe Neighborhood and the Anti-Gang initiatives of the Department of Justice. Later on, he began specializing in investigating and prosecution of cases within the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. At the time, Acting U.S. Attorney Coody was in charge of investigating and prosecuting large-scale and high-profile cases of narcotics trafficking, which have been identified throughs the Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program.

After three years of serving as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas, Jason Coody joined the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida in 2008. He has initially performed duties as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Office, in which U.S. Attorney Coody was responsible for prosecuting violent crimes, particularly those that involved child exploitation, death threats against military service members, and murder for hire. Now Top Federal Prosecutor of the district, Jason Coody has been with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida for almost 13 years. He has held leadership positions throughout those years, including being a Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Office. In addition to that, U.S. Attorney Coody has previously been appointed as the First Assistant United States Attorney to the outgoing U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe. During his legal career, Jason Coody has also been assigned to the Public Trust Unit of the Office’s Criminal Division. He worked to prosecute an array of complex white-collar cases and public corruption matters. His line of work, at the time, involved handling cases of alleged illegal kickback schemes constructed by corrupt public officials, as well as the sophisticated scheme devised by licensed financial advisors to steal money from elderly clients, among the rest of prosecution matters U.S. Attorney Coody manages.

 

Some Cases Prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Coody

A few of the cases that Acting U.S. Attorney Jason Coody has prosecuted include the 2012 case against James Lanier. The latter was arrested and charged with fraud, identity theft, and money laundering for embezzling more than $800,000 in funds from Merrill Lynch Clients. The case was settled with a 65-count indictment.

A more recent case that U.S. Attorney Coody handled is the high-profile case involving the indictment of 29 individuals who have been linked to a vast conspiracy, which aimed to steal thousands in taxpayer dollars. The list of the 29 people who have been arrested includes several elected and appointed government officials in the federal, state, and local offices. It was reported that the scheme’s kingpin was the Executive Director of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency – Duane Crawson. During a press conference, Acting U.S. Attorney Coody noted that Crawson requested funds for livestock and farmland parcels that were, in fact, not owned or list by co-conspirators, which allowed them to steal an estimated $373,483 in drought assistance dollars during the dry period in 2017. Each defendant was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of government funds, carrying a $250,000 fine and a maximum of 20 years imprisonment sentence for each charge.

On March 3, 2021, Jason R. Coody, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced the convictions of Tony M. Streeter, of Fort Walton Beach. After a three-day jury trial, Streeter was convicted on multiple drug charges, firearms offenses, and conspiracy to commit an arson-related offense.

 

Office Jurisdiction

Being the interim Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Jason R. Coody is responsible for providing a safer and better community within the 23 counties in the district. Apart from that, Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official Jason Coody is responsible for leading the Office in prosecuting federal crimes involving public corruption, firearms, financial fraud, and narcotics, among others. Moreover, he shall oversee all of the civil cases within the district that involves the United States and recover debts owed to the United States.

 

Contact Details

Full Name: Jason R. Coody
District/State: Northern District of Florida
Public email ID: Jason.coody@usdoj.gov

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Updated: March 31, 2021