Professor Jones has been an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) for more than 11 years, where he has held a number of positions, including Assistant U.S. Attorney, Senior Trial Attorney, and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division. Professor Jones is currently an attorney in the Criminal Division, Fraud Section, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit where he investigates and prosecutes foreign bribery, money laundering, and other white-collar crimes.
During his tenue at DOJ, Professor Jones has pioneered a number of groundbreaking investigations and prosecutions. Of particular note, Professor Jones spearheaded and served as lead counsel in the investigation and prosecution of the website Backpage.com—the Internet’s leading marketplace for advertisements depicting the sex trafficking of adults and children. Following a multi-year international investigation, Backpage.com was seized and shutdown in the more than 90 countries in which it operated. The prosecution team also secured guilty pleas from Backpage.com and six related corporate entities for engaging in money laundering.
Professor Jones has served as lead trial attorney in 10 federal criminal jury trials, including cases involving cybercrime, white-collar crime, and crimes against children. Notably, Professor Jones served as lead trial attorney in an international cybercrime case involving the unprecedented infiltration and dismantling of what was believed to be the world’s largest hidden service website—an extremely sophisticated and dangerous Dark-Web site—with more than 150,000 users around the world dedicated to the sexual abuse of children online. The case—and the thousands of follow-up investigations it launched—resulted in more than 500 international arrests and at least 350 U.S. arrests.
Professor Jones has also played an integral role in the formulation and implementation of criminal enforcement cybercrime policies for the DOJ and has been selected to train high-level government and non-governmental officials in the U.S. and abroad on best practices for investigating and prosecuting cybercrime, white-collar crime, and crimes against children. He has also served as Diversity Chair and on numerous hiring committees within DOJ, including the Attorney General’s Honors Program Hiring Committee. Professor Jones championed DOJ’s Inaugural Diversity and Leadership Forum, where more than 150 current and former government officials gathered to collaborate on ways to increase the representation of minority attorneys in government and the private sector.
For his work at the DOJ, Professor Jones has earned the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Criminal Investigation, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Director’s Award for Superior Performance, the Federal Bar Association’s Younger Federal Lawyer of the Year Award, the National Bar Association’s “40 Under 40: Nation’s Best Advocate” Award, and the FBI Award of Excellence for Successfully Prosecuting a Major Criminal Case, among other awards.
Before joining the DOJ, Professor Jones worked in private practice at a national law firm. He is a 2008 graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law.
