Acting U.S. Attorney

Rich Barker is the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.  He served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2023 to 2025, and prior to that served as the District’s Tribal Liaison and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Coordinator.  As First Assistant United States Attorney, Rich supervised the office’s litigating divisions, while overseeing media relations, community outreach, and working closely with law enforcement and Tribal leaders to address public safety throughout Eastern Washington.

Acting U.S. Attorney Barker joined the Department of Justice in 2014, as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C., where Rich served in the Homicide Section and handled hundreds of violent crime prosecutions.  In 2019, Rich joined the Eastern District of Washington, where he has prosecuted violent crimes, homicides, large-scale drug trafficking, and cyberstalking offenses, among others.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Rich clerked at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. He also worked in private practice as a litigation associate in Davis Polk’s Washington D.C. office.  Rich completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Utah, graduating summa cum laude, with a double major in Economics and Russian.  He then graduated with highest honors from Brigham Young University (BYU) Law School, finishing at the top of his law school class.

Outside the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Rich serves as an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University School of Law, where he has taught courses in Trial Advocacy and Conflicts of Law. Rich also serves as a Lawyer Representative for the Judicial Conference for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  When Rich is not prosecuting cases or teaching young lawyers, he usually is enjoying the incredible beauty of Eastern Washington with his family and friends.