Rafael M. Gonzalez Jr.

Former United States Attorney

Rafael M. Gonzalez, Jr., was appointed Acting United States Attorney on March 1st, 2021, pursuant to the Vacancy Reform Act.  He previously served as Acting U.S. Attorney from February 26, 2017 until September 20, 2017.  Mr. Gonzalez joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Idaho in March of 1995, and was serving as its First Assistant U.S. Attorney at the time of his appointment, a position he has held since September 2010.  Before that, he served as the District’s Criminal Chief from 2005 - 2010.  As an Assistant United States Attorney for more than 25 years, Mr. Gonzalez prosecuted violent crimes and drug trafficking, immigration offenses, and other general and regulatory crimes.  Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in Idaho, Mr. Gonzalez was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, and before that, an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Detroit, Michigan, where he began his legal career in 1987.

In June 2008, Mr. Gonzalez was appointed to a two-year term on the Criminal Chief’s Working Group of the Department of Justice.  In 1998, he was presented with a Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney.  Mr. Gonzalez currently sits as an executive board member on the Oregon-Idaho HIDTA; a committee member on the Ninth Circuit’s Jury Trial Improvement Committee; and serves as the National Delegate for the Idaho Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.  He is a senior evaluator with the Executive Office of U.S. Attorney’s Evaluation and Review Staff.  Mr. Gonzalez was born in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from Michigan State University’ James Madison College with a B.A. in international relations in 1983 and from Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan, with a J.D. in 1987.  Mr. Gonzalez is married and has two grown children.

-This page is no longer updated-