A crippling blizzard pounding the East Coast has forced nearly a dozen U.S. Attorney’s offices to close and has curtailed Justice Department operations in Washington today, according to DOJ officials.
A weekend snowstorm shut down the Justice Department on Monday. (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).
Many DOJ employees who work at DOJ headquarters in Washington and at U.S. Attorney’s offices stretching from Virginia to Rhode Island are working from home on BlackBerries, cell phone and laptops, the officials said.
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, the DOJ’s main building, is open for essential personnel who are able to make it through the heavy snow and 40 mile per hour winds. There are about 25,300 people who work for DOJ agencies in the Washington area, according to CNN.
Several U.S. Attorney’s offices and DOJ headquarters have been closed or have had limited operations since Monday because of a storm that brought more than a foot of snow to most of the East Coast last weekend, according to reports here and here.
Today’s storm hit while authorities were still struggling to clean up from the last one.
The U.S. Attorney’s offices that are closed today are in:
- Maryland. The office was also closed on Monday.
- The District of Columbia. The office has been closed since Monday.
- The Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria office). The office has been closed since Monday.
- The Western District of Virginia (Charlottesville and Harrisonburg offices).
- The Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
- The Middle District of Pennsylvania.
- The Western District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and Johnstown offices).
- The Eastern District of New York.
- New Jersey.
- Rhode Island.
- Delaware.
U.S. Attorney’s offices in the Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Tennessee and Kansas were shuttered on Monday because of the weather, according to CNN. The Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. Attorney’s Office was also closed on Tuesday, CNN said.
DOJ spokesperson Gina Talamona told Main Justice that DOJ public safety and national security functions are “operational.” She added that the DOJ has made special arrangements for its legal division attorneys to work during the storms and keep up with court deadlines.
This report has been corrected from an earlier version.
