U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg has announced her resignation from her presidentially appointed position in the Southern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office, effective Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.
U.S. Attorney Steinberg served as the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for the 43-county Southern District of Georgia since being sworn into office Feb. 22, 2023. Her departure coincides with the pending transition to a new presidential administration and the traditional appointment of new leaders for federal agencies.
“Serving as U.S. Attorney has been a distinct honor and privilege, and I am grateful for the hard work, camaraderie, and friendship of the dedicated professionals who continue to serve on behalf of the American people,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “Representing the United States in court is an incredible responsibility, and those who seek justice on behalf of our nation deserve our lasting gratitude. I am proud to have served alongside them.”
During Steinberg’s tenure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office concluded a statewide investigation that identified unconstitutional conditions at Georgia’s state prisons; worked to hold accountable individuals responsible for more than $12 million in pandemic relief fraud; and successfully prosecuted significant criminal cases including drug trafficking conspiracies, large-scale fraud operations, child sexual exploitation crimes, and nearly 200 cases involving illegal firearms possession.
Highlights of U.S. Attorney Steinberg’s tenure include:
Criminal prosecutions for drugs, violent crime
- Operation Ghost Busted, the largest single drug trafficking indictment returned in the Southern District of Georgia, was designed to address, and did in fact address, the significant uptick of overdose deaths in the Brunswick, Georgia, area. The defendants, many of them affiliated with a white supremacist gang, collectively have been sentenced to more than 4,000 months in prison, including one defendant who received a life sentence.
- In Operation Night Drop, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted 15 defendants – many of them inmates in Georgia state prisons – for operating a widespread methamphetamine trafficking operation that used drones to deliver contraband to incarcerated conspirators.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted a violent extremist who used a weapon of mass destruction on a Savannah street, and another who stalked a woman before using an explosive on her home.
- U.S. Attorney Steinberg took great care to ensure federal resources were used to vigorously defend against those who threatened our national security; the office prosecuted a hostile foreign state actor for exporting restricted equipment and information, and an individual for leaking classified information from the National Security Agency.
Protecting the vulnerable
The U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasized the protection of our most vulnerable citizens from sexual predators, including the prosecution of a defendant sentenced to 100 years in federal prison for sexually abusing multiple children, a defendant indicted for surreptitiously recording unclothed images of minors in a gym, and multiple defendants indicted as part of a multi-agency operation aimed at identifying online predators.
The office also reached a settlement with a Savannah-area landlord who engaged in a pattern and practice of sexually harassing female tenants for more than 15 years, and then coordinated a multi-agency community roundtable to provide public education on the rights of tenants in rental housing.
Fighting financial fraud
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the supervisor of the Glynn County public works department for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for his own personal benefit.
- An individual who used the complex and emerging world of cryptocurrency to defraud multiple individual victims of over a million dollars was sent to prison.
- An office manager who abused her position of trust to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a prominent real estate management company received a prison sentence and was ordered to pay restitution.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted multiple individuals who committed millions of dollars in tax fraud and fraudulently accessed pandemic relief programs.
- The office successfully tried a years-long prosecution with the Antitrust Division involving a concrete company and its associates for engaging in anti-competitive practices such as price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation.
- The office reached a $3.9 million settlement with two companies whose employee was murdered when he exposed a scheme by other employees to illegally profit from undocumented laborers.
In addition to these initiatives, U.S. Attorney Steinberg oversaw the revival of the district’s Human Trafficking Task Force and supported the office’s efforts to provide law enforcement training and public education on human trafficking. She also facilitated the district’s entry into the Department of Justice and Department of Commerce-led Disruptive Technology Strike Force, boosted participation in Chatham County’s HOPE Court, and strengthened efforts to pursue prosecution of domestic abusers who illegally possess firearms. Early in her tenure, Steinberg brought together leaders from federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate on major government-led initiatives.
Steinberg was a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) and the AGAC White Collar, Cyber, and Violent Crime Subcommittees. The AGAC is composed of select U.S. Attorneys who advise the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management that impact the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.
U.S. Attorney Steinberg emphasized the importance of community education, visiting school and civic groups and sending staff attorneys to build awareness in such vital areas as hate crimes enforcement, constitutional rights, and elder financial fraud, while supporting the office’s efforts to provide continuing education to law enforcement professionals in areas including white collar crime and human trafficking. The office conducted a public outreach program in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regarding illegal firearms purchases, and coordinated multiple sessions across the district to train law enforcement officers on the growing threat of “ghost” guns and illegal machine gun conversion devices.
“It is my hope that the citizens of the Southern District of Georgia will feel safer and better informed and empowered through our outreach efforts,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “Knowledge is a powerful tool, and informed citizens are a vital part of protecting our civil rights and the security of our neighborhoods.”
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Attorney Steinberg was a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP. From 2008 to 2014, and from 2016 to 2021, she served the citizens of Georgia as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Criminal Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. From 2014 to 2016, Steinberg worked at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. where she served as an Attorney Advisor in the National Security Division and then as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. From 2001 to 2008, she was an associate at Rogers & Hardin LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.
Steinberg began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office from 1998 to 2001. She received her Juris Doctor from Duke University Law School in 1998 and her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Georgia in 1995.
As U.S. Attorney, Steinberg served as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Southern District of Georgia, which covers 43 of Georgia’s 159 counties with a population of more than 1.6 million people and includes the cities of Savannah, Augusta, and Brunswick. She led a team of more than 70 attorneys and staff in prosecuting federal crimes in the district and defending the United States in civil cases brought in U.S. District Court.