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Texas U.S. Attorneys say domestic violence prevention transcends politics

The U.S. Attorneys for Texas met with the Texas Council on Family Violence to discuss domestic violence prevention.
Caroline Love
Alamdar Hamdani, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, and Damien Diggs, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, discussed domestic violence prevention on Tuesday. All four of Texas' U.S. attorneys attended the press conference.

Damien Diggs is the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. And the Biden appointee may be out of a job soon. But Diggs said his work on domestic violence will continue with or without him.

Diggs’ office is behind an initiative called Operation Purple Ribbon. The project aims to prosecute domestic abusers with extensive assault and criminal history at a federal level. Diggs talked about the initiative at a press conference on Tuesday with the Texas Council on Family Violence, where he and three other U.S. attorneys from Texas also discussed what their offices have done to prevent domestic violence.

The number of Texas women shot and killed by their intimate partners has nearly doubled since 2013. That’s according to a recent report from the Texas Council on Family Violence, which reported that there were 205 domestic violence victims killed by their intimate partners in Texas last year.

Biden appointed all four of the Texas U.S. attorneys. Diggs said he’s aware that president-elect Donald Trump could appoint someone else to his position. Still, he said the work to help survivors of domestic violence will carry on with or without him.

“These kind of initiatives transcend changes in administrations because these are violence reducing initiatives that any administration, whether you’re Democratic or Republican, would get behind,” Diggs said.

Leigha Simonton, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, echoed Diggs’ statement.

“U.S. attorneys offices always do wonderful work, and so I believe that they will continue to prosecute domestic violence offenses,” Simonton said. “My office certainly will.”

Simonton was the chief of the appellate division of the U.S. Northern District of Texas when Erin Nealy Cox, a Trump appointee, was the U.S. Attorney for the district. Then U.S. Attorney General William Barr appointed Cox the head of a domestic violence group in 2019 focused on keeping guns out of the hands of known abusers.

In the press release for the domestic violence initiative, Cox said prosecuting domestic abusers who illegally possessed firearms would help prevent homicides.

“We hope our initial cases send a message to convicted abusers: Not only could the Justice Department theoretically prosecute abusers for firearm possession – they have and they will,” she said.

Zackey Rahimi was one of those offenders. The alleged drug dealer from Arlington was charged with illegally possessing a firearm while subject to domestic violence protective order. His case made its way to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal law barring people subject to domestic violence protective orders was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ended up overturning the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.

Simonton said her office had to find other ways to prosecute domestic abusers while the case was making its way through the Supreme Court.

“That was a hindrance,” she said. “Now, it’s full steam ahead.”

Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.

Caroline Love covers Collin County for KERA and is a member of the Report for America corps. Previously, Caroline covered daily news at Houston Public Media. She has a master's degree from Northwestern University with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism. During grad school, she reported three feature stories for KERA. She also has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Christian University and interned with KERA's Think in 2019.