At the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, Julia Torti is the new assistant U.S. attorney in the civil division – a position that is focused on civil rights issues and cases.
The Department of Justice made this position available in Vermont and 33 other states, all of which bid for the federal funding to create the positions.
"There's a number of federal statutes that protect people's civil rights, and the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney's office here in Vermont are empowered to enforce those statutes – and that's what I will be focusing on doing," Torti explains.
"The U.S. attorney's office here has done a bit of this work in the past, but this new position allows the office to devote new resources and just a lot more time to civil rights litigation."
Torti and Nikolas Kerest, the civil division chief and civil rights coordinator for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, both spoke to Vermont Edition about this new position and the work of the office, including community outreach efforts.
Listen to the full interview from Vermont Edition above.
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