Steven H. Cook

Retired Associate Deputy Attorney General Steven H. Cook served with the US Department of Justice for thirty-three years.  Between 2017 to 2019 Mr. Cook was assigned to lead two of the Department’s priority programs—violent crime reduction and strengthening the Department’s relationship with state and local law enforcement.    

For thirty years prior to that assignment Mr. Cook served in the field as a federal prosecutor handling a wide range of matters including RICO; white-collar crime; multi-million-dollar fraud; public corruption; violent crime; and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases.  For eight years he was assigned to serve as the chief of the Criminal Division overseeing federal prosecutors in three offices in his district. In those positions, he received dozens of awards and letters of commendation including the Directors Award for Superior Performance in connection with his work prosecuting violent gang members.  He also served three terms as president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys.    

Mr. Cook was chosen as one of The Politico’s 50 in 2017 for his work on national criminal justice issues. He has testified multiple times before Congress in connection with proposed criminal justice legislation including bills involving the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, sentencing reform, legalization of marijuana, and gun crime. He has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and television programs with regional and national audiences (including the O’Reilly Factor and Sean Hannity Show) and has appeared as a frequent panelist on forums and discussion panels (including programs hosted by the Washington Post, Atlantic Magazine, Hastings Law Journal, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Conference, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives). He has also contributed to Federalist Society educational videos.  

Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Cook clerked for a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Cook earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence with high honors from the University of Tennessee in 1984, where he was a member of the Tennessee Law Review, and he was inducted into the Order of the Coif.    Prior to his judicial clerkship, Mr. Cook worked as a police officer for seven years serving in nearly every capacity including corrections, patrol, traffic, crime analysis, and planning and research.  

Finally, for over twenty years Mr. Cook served as a speaker or instructor at dozens of events across the country ranging from those with international audiences to local police academies and training events.