Federal prosecutors, law enforcement officers and other government employees on Wednesday took center stage at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington as the Justice Department honored some of its own and the work of others.
Attorney General Eric Holder paid tribute to about 350 government workers at the 58th Annual Attorney General Awards Ceremony for their contributions to the DOJ. Grinning honorees floated across the stage for about 90 minutes to receive more than 25 different awards and share the spotlight and a picture with Holder and about 40 top DOJ officials, while hundreds of family members, friends and colleagues looked on.
Attorney General Eric Holder (photo by Daniel Hoffman / Main Justice)
“Although the Department of Justice includes some of our nation’s most talented and most effective public servants, each of today’s awardees has stood out,” Holder said. “Not only is their service to our nation inspiring, it is strengthening the work of the Justice Department at every level and making a powerful difference for people across our country, and far beyond.”
The DOJ’s top honor, the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, went to the more than a dozen DOJ and other federal employees, who worked on the Pfizer Inc. off-label promotion and kickbacks case, which led to the biggest health care settlement in DOJ history. The Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service also went to about 60 federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, who handled the 2009 New York subway bombing plot case against Najibullah Zazi, among other suspects.
The department also paid tribute to Drug Enforcement Administration agents who died in Afghanistan in October 2009. Special agents Forrest N. Leamon, Chad L. Michael and Michael E. Weston were killed when their helicopter was shot down following a raid on poppy fields in western Afghanistan. The DEA has been working to stop the nation’s opium trade, which helps fund the Taliban.
Members of their families accepted the awards on their behalf as audience members gave them a standing ovation.
Holder, who keeps photos of the men on his desk, saw the agents’ remains arrive at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base. The Attorney General told Newsweek last December that seeing the caskets was “the most difficult evening” so far in his tenure. He said on Wednesday that the men were “true American heroes.”
The Attorney General also bestowed honors to four of his colleagues, who have worked at the DOJ for decades.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John “Jack” Keeney was honored with the new Claudia J. Flynn Award for Professional Responsibility for his 59 years of service at the DOJ. (He actually received the award during a farewell ceremony last month.)
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Hertz of the Commercial Litigation Branch, a 33-year veteran of the DOJ, was the recipient of the Edward H. Levi Award for Outstanding Professionalism and Exemplary Integrity for his work on False Claims Act cases and the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for his work on the $1.4 billion Cobell settlement in 2009, which involves American Indian trust assets. He was the only honoree to receive two awards this year.
William L. Taylor, Judicial Security Inspector for the Southern District of Ohio of the U.S. Marshals Service, received the Mary C. Lawton Lifetime Service Award for responding to major challenges — including the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina — over his past 20 years at the DOJ.
Kevin Ohlson, Holder’s chief of staff and 20-year DOJ veteran, was the recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for his role in advancing DOJ programs.
Read about all of the award winners here.
[...] Department employees on Wednesday flocked to DAR Constitution Hall in Washington to pick up the DOJ’s highest honors. But members of some DOJ branches had little to celebrate at the department’s premier awards [...]