- R. Alexander Acosta
R. Alexander Acosta is an American lawyer and the current
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida .Acosta is a native of
Miami, Florida , and attended the Gulliver Schools in Miami. He received hisbachelor's degree fromHarvard College and hislaw degree fromHarvard Law School . After graduation (1994-1995) he served as alaw clerk toSamuel Alito , then a judge on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit . Acosta then worked at theWashington, D.C. office of thelaw firm Kirkland & Ellis . While in Washington, Acosta also taught classes onemployment law ,disability -based discrimination law, andcivil rights law at theGeorge Mason University School of Law . Acosta received the Excellence in Government Service Award in 2003 from theMexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Award from the DC Hispanic Bar Association. From 1998-2000 Acosta was a senior fellow at the socially conservativeEthics and Public Policy Center . [http://www.mediatransparency.org/personprofile.php?personID=381]Acosta served as a member of the
National Labor Relations Board before becoming a Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for theUnited States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division . He was the firstHispanic to serve as an Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice.Acosta was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida by President
George W. Bush . Notable cases during his tenure include the prosecution ofJack Abramoff in connection with the SunCruz Casinos sale, the corruption prosecution of Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, Palm Beach County Commissioner Warren Newell, and BrowardSheriff Ken Jenne, the prosecution ofJose Padilla , and the conviction ofCali Cartel founders Miguel andGilberto Rodríguez Orejuela , and thewhite-collar crime prosecutions of executives connected to Hamilton Bank. Acosta has emphasized health-carefraud prosecutions.External links
* [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/USAttorney.html Official biography] from the
United States Department of Justice
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/racosta-bio.html Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta]
* [http://january6th.org/acosta.html Criticism of Acosta and his role in the 2004 election]
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