Lisa G. Johnston
Acting U.S. Attorney
Lisa G. Johnston is the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. She serves in that capacity under the Vacancies Reform Act, as the Office’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney. As Acting U.S. Attorney, she is responsible for overseeing all federal criminal
prosecutions and the litigation of all civil matters in the Southern District of West Virginia in which the federal government has an interest.
Johnston is a career prosecutor who joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia in August 2006. In 2010, she was named the Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the district. Throughout her lengthy career with the Department of Justice, Johnston prosecuted numerous sexual exploitation cases as well as federal cases involving firearms, arson, drugs and health care fraud.
Johnston assumed the duties of First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of West Virginia in January 2018.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia, Johnston was employed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney and then as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia from 1988 until 2006. In 2000, she organized
and led the Northern District of West Virginia’s Crimes Against Children Task Force.
From 2001 though 2005, she completed a detail with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Chief Counsel’s Office.
Johnston received her law degree from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1988. She received a B.A. cum laude in Journalism from West Virginia University in 1984.
Dates of Service:
2021 - Present - Present
Updated March 1, 2021
She’s FISA hopping 🐇