Former interim U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell of the Eastern District of New York resigned Monday as a prosecutor in the office to join a national law firm in New York.
Campbell declined to identify the law firm in an interview with Main Justice. But the former leader of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office said he will start at the firm in February as a partner, handling mostly white-collar criminal matters.
Benton Campbell (DOJ)
He joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in 1994, rising to interim U.S. Attorney in October 2007. The prosecutor held that post until May 2010, when U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch took office. He then served as a supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office’s Criminal Division until his resignation.
Nicknamed “Dangerous Opie” for his resemblance to Ron Howard’s character in “The Andy Griffith Show,” Campbell garnered national attention as interim U.S. Attorney for his office’s work on the 2009 New York subway bombing plot case against Najibullah Zazi. But Attorney General Eric Holder accidentally said “Ben Wagner” was the U.S. Attorney on the case during a news conference at Justice Department headquarters. (Wagner is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California.)
At the DOJ, Campbell also worked on other high-profile matters, including the Enron case in the 2000s and prosecutions against two Bear Stearns traders, who were acquitted in 2009 of fraud charges.
The former interim U.S. Attorney had been considering a move to the private sector for the last several months. But he told Main Justice that his time at the DOJ was “the single greatest experience of my professional career.”
Mr. Campbell was the best US Attorney the EDNY ever had or perhaps will ever have. In fact, he was one of the best US Attorneys the DOJ ever had (all districts).
Mr. Campbell is humble, very hard working, aggressive, and was well respected by his colleagues (to include the SEC). He will be missed.
It’s too bad Mr. Holder has such a problem with names.