Perspective of a Catholic Prosecutor | Honorable John Durham
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2019
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This talk was given at Yale Law School on November 13th, 2018 by the Honorable John Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
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Speaker Bio:
John Durham became the US Attorney for the District of Connecticut in February of 2018
Prior to his appointment as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Durham served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years, prosecuting complex organized crime, violent crime, public corruption and financial fraud matters.
From 2008 to 2017, Mr. Durham served as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney; from 1994 to 2008, he served as the Deputy U.S. Attorney, and served as the U.S. Attorney in an acting and interim capacity in 1997 and 1998; from 1989 to 1994, he served as Chief of the Office’s Criminal Division, and from 1982 to 1989, he served as an attorney and then supervisor in the New Haven Field Office of the Boston Strike Force in the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Durham also served as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he investigated matters relating to the destruction of certain videotapes by the CIA and the treatment of detainees by the CIA. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Durham served as a Special Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and Head of the Justice Task Force, where he reviewed alleged criminal conduct by FBI personnel and other law enforcement corruption in Boston, led the prosecution of a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and a former Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant, and handled direct appeals and related proceedings following convictions after trial.
From 1978 to 1982, Mr. Durham served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office headed by Arnold Markle, and from 1977 to 1978, he served as a Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.
From 1975 to 1977, Mr. Durham worked as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana.
Mr. Durham graduated, with honors, from Colgate University in 1972 and the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1975.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I want to focus, if I mind in my remarks on my job as a prosecutor and how it intersects, |
| 0:07.1 | and it does intersect almost immediately, with my faith as a Catholic. |
| 0:13.1 | And it intersects in an easily identifiable way as a sworn servant of the king, or in this instance, the federal government, it is my obligation |
| 0:26.0 | to seek the truth. |
| 0:28.6 | And having been raised in the Catholic tradition and the Catholic faith, it's a relatively |
| 0:34.3 | easy process for me. |
| 0:37.2 | I would note that the sponsors of today's remarks, |
| 0:43.3 | the Thomistic Institute, is supported and run by Dominicans. |
| 0:48.3 | And as it happens, as some of you may know, |
| 0:50.3 | the motto of the Dominicans order is veritas or truth. |
| 0:55.8 | The real beauty of being a prosecutor, |
| 1:01.1 | notwithstanding what some perspectives on being a prosecutor may be, |
| 1:06.7 | is that it affords a lawyer, in my instance, myself for 40 years, |
| 1:11.9 | and a fellow who just came in the courtroom, Bill Nardini, |
| 1:14.4 | who graduated from this law school not many years ago |
| 1:18.1 | as the chief of the criminal division, |
| 1:20.2 | it affords you the opportunity to be a truth seeker |
| 1:25.3 | and to focus your exclusive attention on trying to seek out the truth |
| 1:30.3 | and doing justice in all circumstances. Indeed, for those of you who are looking for security |
| 1:38.3 | in your professional lives, I can recommend the prosecution to you because the only way a prosecutor can actually get him or herself in any kind of serious trouble is if that prosecutor were due something that he or she knew was not right or which tended to hide the truth or at least portions of the truth. |
| 2:02.1 | Will made reference to a matter going back to 1968. |
| 2:06.7 | Mr. Nardini and I were in Boston conducting investigations |
... |
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