Vanessa R. Waldref to Conclude Her Service as U.S. Attorney

Spokane, Washington – United States Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref announced that her service as the chief federal law enforcement officer for Eastern Washington will conclude later this month. Her departure coincides with the transition to a new presidential administration and the traditional appointment of new leaders for federal agencies. U.S. Attorney Waldref was recommended by Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and sworn into office on October 7, 2021. U.S. Attorney Waldref is the first woman to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.

“Serving as U.S. Attorney has been the honor of a lifetime,” stated U.S. Attorney Waldref.  “Every day I witness firsthand the unwavering dedication and extraordinary skill of the federal prosecutors, support staff, and law enforcement partners, who routinely make unseen sacrifices to protect our community. Eastern Washington and our nation are safer and stronger because of their efforts.”

Under her historic leadership, U.S. Attorney Waldref transformed the U.S. Attorney’s Office, expanding its footprint by opening a staffed Richland Branch office, hiring a record number of federal prosecutors and staff, modernizing the Office’s electronic discovery practice, and spearheading innovative collaborations with law enforcement and community stakeholders.

“When I became the United States Attorney, my vision was building an office responsive to the needs of the community, focused on public health and safety, fighting fraud, protecting civil rights, and addressing the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People,” continued U.S. Attorney Waldref. “Since day one, my goals were to forge strong partnerships with law enforcement and community stakeholders, advocate for resources to better serve all of Eastern Washington and prioritize the most impactful cases to protect our community.”

Beyond Eastern Washington, U.S. Attorney Waldref brought her expertise to Washington, DC, and impacted the Department of Justice’s national legal policy on key areas – environmental justice, public safety on Native American reservations, combatting fraud, and addressing the opioid epidemic. On December 6, 2023, U.S. Attorney Waldref testified before the United States Senate on behalf of the Department of Justice about the fentanyl epidemic on Tribal lands and its impact on public safety and the Missing or Murdered Indigenous People crisis.

During U.S. Attorney Waldref’s tenure, the Eastern District of Washington achieved significant successes, including groundbreaking criminal and affirmative civil enforcements.

Combatting Violent Crime and the Opioid Epidemic

In Spring 2024, after a long-term joint federal and state investigation, criminal conspiracy charges were filed against over 40 individuals connected to the La Nuestra Familia prison gang, including several gang leaders who were repeat violent offenders and drug traffickers. The Office also prosecuted the “Fetty Bros” drug trafficking organization, which used snapchat and other social media to obtain deadly fentanyl pills in 10,000-pack quantities and distributed those and other drugs into the Spokane community and across the United States.

In addition to prosecuting large-scale drug trafficking organizations, U.S. Attorney Waldref launched Operation Engage Spokane, a comprehensive community-level approach for addressing the opioid epidemic through prevention, treatment, and education. Ms. Waldref and her team also collaborated with the Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education to educate youth on the dangers of fentanyl and to remove the stigma from seeking life-saving treatment.

Protecting the Vulnerable

U.S. Attorney Waldref has emphasized the protection of our most vulnerable citizens from sexual predators, forging a strong partnership with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) to achieve justice for victims of child exploitation. Significant cases included guilty verdicts and 30-year sentences against a defendant who was tried and convicted of attempting to kidnap, rape, and traffic a young Spokane child and against a Kennewick couple who engaged in years-long sexual abuse of a minor victim and recorded images depicting the abuse. 

Partnership with Tribal Nations

Throughout U.S. Attorney Waldref’s service, she has worked closely with Tribal Nations to support Tribal sovereignty, recognize Tribal treaty rights, reduce violent crime on Native American Reservations, and build trust through community and educational events, in order to meet and share resources with victims and their families. U.S. Attorney Waldref has also worked tirelessly to bring awareness to the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP).

U.S. Attorney Waldref successfully advocated for additional resources to protect Tribal communities, including new attorneys and support staff to serve victims of crime.  She hired the District’s first MMIP AUSA, Bree R. Black Horse, who is specifically dedicated to prosecuting MMIP-related cases, expanding outreach to Native American communities, and providing training regarding culturally sensitive practices for helping victims of violent crimes in Indian country.

“Native Americans experience some of the highest rates of violence in the country, a situation that is all the more tragic in light of the generations of trauma already suffered by Indigenous people,” stated U.S. Attorney Waldref.  “The United States has a special trust relationship with each of the Tribes in Eastern Washington, and my office has focused on enhancing public safety through building relationships with the communities we serve and supporting wrap-around services to ensure victims’ voices are heard and that everyone has access to justice.”

Significant prosecutions of individuals who have perpetrated violent crime in Indian country include obtaining guilty verdicts in the trial of James and Donovan Cloud for multiple murders, kidnapping, and carjacking on Yakima Nation’s Treaty Day in 2019. Late last year, her team convicted Zachary Holt and Dezmonique Tenzsley of double murder, attempted murder of a federal officer, as well as of robberies on both the Colville and Nez Perce Reservations. As part of its efforts to address the MMIP crisis, the office also has significantly increased its prosecutions of cases involving intimate partner violence.

Environmental Protection & Public Health

U.S. Attorney Waldref was selected by Attorney General Merrick Garland as Chair of the DOJ’s Environmental Justice & Environmental Issues Subcommittee. Under her leadership, the Subcommittee played a key role in advising the Department and the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices on developing environmental justice practices and building task forces to effectively investigate and prosecute environmental crimes. U.S. Attorney Waldref led by example, working with federal, state, Tribal and local partners to launch Eastern Washington’s Environmental Task Force. The Office had several successes in protecting the region’s public health and safety:

• Indicting several business owners and companies for smuggling and illegally importing tens of millions of dollars in emission defeat devices from Canada into Eastern Washington;
• Successfully prosecuting a Yakima-area juice manufacturing company and its owner for violating food safety laws and selling contaminated fruit juice to school lunch programs that serve low-income students;
• Securing injunctive relief under the Safe Drinking Water Act against several Lower Yakima Valley dairies for failing to control nitrate contamination, resulting from their manure practices that endanger the community’s access to safe and clean water; and
• Hosting the Justice Department’s first regional summit focused on defending and strengthening Tribal homelands, climate adaptation, resilience and environmental justice.

Fighting Fraud and Protecting Taxpayers

U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership also emphasized fighting fraud and public corruption, and her White Collar Section’s work combatting financial fraud and recovering damages continued to set the standard for U.S. Attorney Offices throughout the nation. The Office’s efforts resulted in several of the most significant settlements in Eastern Washington history, highlighted by a significant increase in health care fraud work, the launch of Eastern Washington’s innovative and prolific Covid-19 Fraud Strike Force, and the Ghost Cattle prosecution.

• The U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained two of the largest health care fraud settlements in Eastern Washington history – against Providence Health & Services and Lincare Holdings, Inc., who respectively paid out $22.7 million and $29 million to resolve claims under the False Claims Act.  These cases prioritized patient care and recovered funds for individuals who were overcharged for medical devices.
• Since its inception in 2022, Eastern Washington’s COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force has filed 37 indictments and recovered more than $30 million in penalties, fines, seizures, and restitution judgments against dozens of individuals and companies who fraudulently obtained COVID relief funding. 
• The “Ghost Cattle” prosecution of Tri-Cities rancher Cody Easterday for defrauding Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million for approximately 265,000 head of cattle that did not exist.

Civil Rights

Throughout her service, U.S. Attorney Waldref has taken a comprehensive approach to protecting the civil rights of all who call Eastern Washington home.  Examples of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s accomplishments in this area include:

• Giving United Against Hate presentations with community stakeholders throughout Eastern Washington to encourage the reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents and allow for more effective law enforcement response;
• Establishing a dedicated Civil Rights Team to process complaints and concerns raised by the community, including holding businesses accountable for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act;
• Partnering with the Northwest Justice Project to hold landlords accountable for wrongfully claiming federal funds while providing substandard housing;
• Protecting students and ensuring school districts respond effectively to harassment and discrimination against students based on sex, race, color and national origin.

Partnerships with State, and Local Law Enforcement

U.S. Attorney Waldref worked tirelessly to build strong relationships between federal, state, local and Tribal law enforcement, with a focus on sharing information and resources to solve problems and promote public safety. 

“One of my goals as U.S. Attorney was to ensure our cases represented all of Eastern Washington,” U.S. Attorney Waldref explained. “I am proud to say that during my tenure, we prosecuted cases from each of the twenty counties east of the Cascade Mountains.” Under U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office even assisted on cases filed in state court, including the investigation and charging of a 1997 homicide in Stevens County.

U.S. Attorney Waldref forged relationships to focus on community-based crime prevention strategies, such as her office’s Safe Homes, Safe Community Initiative in Yakima and Spokane, which brought together local and federal law enforcement, county prosecutors, and domestic violence prevention advocates to stop gun violence and prevent domestic violence homicides.

The Office also leveraged resources to appoint Special Assistant United States Attorneys that prosecuted cases focused on sexual exploitation and domestic violence in federal, state, and Tribal courts. Currently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is recruiting applicants for a SAUSA position with the City of Spokane to focus on drug prosecutions.

Transformation of the Eastern District

The U.S Attorney’s Office itself has transformed under U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership. Opening a Richland Branch office had been considered for nearly 25 years, and U.S. Attorney Waldref successfully implemented a plan for achieving this goal within her first year of service. Additionally, through her dedicated advocacy within the Department, U.S. Attorney Waldref hired a record number of federal prosecutors and staff. She also focused on modernizing the Office’s electronic discovery practices to support sophisticated litigation and the increasing volume of electronic evidence. U.S. Attorney Waldref expanded the office’s community engagement and outreach to better listen to constituents, build trust, and ensure that the public understood the work of the Office and its law enforcement partners.

Upon U.S. Attorney Waldref’s announcement that her service would be coming to an end, First Assistant United States Attorney Richard Barker stated, “In a little more than three years, Vanessa has done more than some prosecutors achieve in a lifetime. Her contributions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office will live on for years to come. From the initiatives and programs she established to the incredible attorneys that she hired, U.S. Attorney Waldref has helped make Eastern Washington a safer place to live, work, and raise families.  Serving as her First Assistant has been one of the highlights of my career.”

Alison Gregoire, the first woman to serve as Criminal Chief for the Eastern District of Washington stated, “It has been my honor to serve alongside Vanessa. Her commitment to justice, to victims, and to the people of Eastern Washington is unparalleled. While we will miss her greatly, the foundation she built will endure.”

Senior United States District Judge Edward F. Shea stated, “The expansion of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richland continues to strengthen the ongoing-Federal-Local law enforcement efforts in Southeastern Washington for the benefit of all who live here. I am certain that the people of the Tri-Cities are grateful that U.S. Attorney Waldref made the Richland Branch Office a reality.”

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, First Assistant United States Attorney Richard Barker will become the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington after U.S. Attorney Waldref’s departure.

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U.S. Attorney Waldref is a native of Spokane with deep roots in Eastern Washington. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 2013 to 2020, handling a wide variety of civil and criminal cases.  Immediately prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney, Ms. Waldref served as a Trial Attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice where she litigated cases in federal courts around the country arising under a range of environmental protection statutes.

From 2015-2021, Ms. Waldref has taught courses in Environmental Law, Labor & Employment Law, and Conflict of Laws at Gonzaga University School of Law. She previously worked in private practice at two Spokane-based law firms and as a litigation associate at Morrison Foerster in Washington D.C.

After graduating as the valedictorian from Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, U.S. Attorney Waldref received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University in 2002, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University in 2008. Following law school, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable John D. Bates on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.