Durbin Meets with ATF Director Nominee Steve Dettelbach

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today met with Steve Dettelbach, nominated to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). During their meeting, Durbin asked Dettelbach about his plans for ATF to help reduce the unacceptably high levels of gun violence in cities like Chicago.  Durbin and Dettelbach additionally discussed the importance of reducing illicit gun trafficking and straw purchases.

“Both Democrats and Republicans share the very real concern of violence in our communities—yet only one party, beholden to the gun lobby, has worked to block every ATF Director nominee for the better part of a decade,” said Durbin.  “Mr. Dettelbach is a highly respected former U.S. Attorney and career prosecutor who is well equipped to lead this agency and enforce the laws on the books.  It’s long past time to give ATF the leadership it needs to crack down on gun crime and illegal gun trafficking.”

A photo of the meeting is available here.

Steve Dettelbach has served as Partner and Co-Chair of the White Collar and Corporate Investigations Group with Baker & Hostetler LLP in Cleveland, Ohio since 2016.  From 2009 until 2016, Dettelbach was the Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.  He also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney—first in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland from 1997 to 2001 and again in April 2003, and then in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio’s Organized Crime and Corruption Strike Force from 2003 to 2006.  He was a detailee to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2003, and from 1992 to 1997 he was a trial attorney and Acting Deputy Chief for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division—Criminal Section.  Finally, Dettelbach was a detailee and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from January until September 1993.

Dettelbach has received an outpouring of support for his nomination to lead ATF.  The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), U.S. Conference of Mayors (signed by a bipartisan group of 102 mayors), Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), Major County Sheriffs Association (MCSA), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE), 141 former bipartisan Department of Justice officials (including close to 30 Republican-appointed officials), National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), and multiple other groups and individuals all have written letters of support to the Senate Judiciary Committee for Dettelbach.

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