Sally Q. Yates

Sally Q. Yates was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General on May 13, 2015. President Obama formally nominated her for the position on January 8, 2015.

As Deputy Attorney General, Ms. Yates oversees day-to-day operations of the Department of Justice. Her responsibilities include oversight of all facets of the Department’s work, including its four law enforcement agencies (the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the United States Marshals Service), its prosecutorial, litigating, and national security components, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Department’s various grant-making and legal services offices.

A native of Georgia, Ms. Yates has served in the Department of Justice for twenty-seven years.  She began her public service career in September 1989 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia.  Over the next two decades, she prosecuted a wide range of cases, including numerous white-collar fraud and political corruption matters, and served as the lead prosecutor of Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. Ms. Yates held several supervisory positions within the office until 2010, when she was appointed by President Obama to lead the office as its first female United States Attorney. 

During her tenure, Ms. Yates has focused her efforts on strengthening public safety, reforming the criminal justice system, ensuring individual accountability for corporate wrongdoers, and enhancing our prison system for the 21st century. 

Before joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Yates graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law and practiced commercial litigation at a law firm in Atlanta.  She and her husband Comer have two children.

Read about the priorities of the Former Deputy Attorney General.