The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Unlike other municipalities, Washington, D.C. is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. Therefore, the federal government is responsible for prosecuting both federal crimes and all serious crimes committed by adults in the District of Columbia. Therefore, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia serves as both the federal prosecutor (as in the other 92 U.S. Attorneys' offices) and as the local district attorney. The Attorney General of the District of Columbia handles local civil litigation and non-felony prosecutions.
The current U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia is Ronald C. Machen, Jr.
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—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
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—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)