The top federal prosecutor and public defender in Colorado appeared together in downtown Denver on Thursday for a discussion that touched on criminal justice priorities like the fentanyl crisis, as well as the Biden administration’s judicial nominees and their efforts to diversity their offices.

Although U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan and Federal Public Defender Virginia Grady are within a year of each other in age, their careers have differed markedly. Grady began at the public defender’s office in 1990 and has served as its leader since 2013. Finegan, by contrast, is in his fifth month at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado, following a career that took him from Washington, D.C. to the administration of then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and eventually to private practice.

Fiengan said fentanyl, cybercrime and the recovery of property obtained through fraud would be his priorities. While his office has more of an agenda-setting role by nature of the cases they pursue, Finegan clarified that prosecutors also have to be responsive to changing circumstances.

“When I was contemplating this position and thinking about some of the issues we would be dealing with, at the time I did not grasp what was happening with fentanyl in the country in the rise of that drug and how much time it can consume,” he said.

Finegan, who took office in December following his U.S. Senate confirmation, also said firearms-related offenses are of particular concern.

“The first week I came home and my wife and I were talking and she said, ‘What’s the most amazing thing you’ve learned?’ I said there are more guns in this country than I ever thought possible. That’s not a political statement,” he added. “It’s just astonishing the number of guns we have.”

Grady explained that her office is, by design, largely reactive to the decisions of others in the criminal justice system. She said that although the volume of cases for federal public defenders is not as high as their state counterparts, the complexity of cases makes for time-consuming work, coupled with the fact that incarcerated defendants are spread out across multiple states.

“Our lawyers are on the road or in a plane all the time,” said Grady, whose office covers Colorado and Wyoming. Finegan interjected that he also has far fewer staff than the state attorney general, despite the confluence of federal agencies, federal prisons and public lands in Colorado contributing to high caseloads.

The discussion between Finegan and Grady took place at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse. The Faculty of Federal Advocates, a membership organization for lawyers who practice in Colorado’s federal courts, sponsored the event.

Grady spoke approvingly of the Biden administration’s pattern of appointing public defenders to federal judgeships as part of a deliberate strategy to boost the number of judges from historically underrepresented demographic groups.

“What does that mean to us and to me? It means not just recognition, it means validation,” Grady said. “An acknowledgment of the value of the work that we do.”

She said it has been an “eye-opening experience” listening to senators direct critical comments toward recent judicial nominees with public defender experience during their confirmation hearings. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in one instance told an appellate court nominee that “you don’t feel sympathy for the victims. You don’t stand with the victims. You spent your life trying to save that murderer.” 

Judge Veronica S. Rossman, a former public defender in Colorado whom Grady personally recommended for a seat on the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, also faced disapproval of her work seeking release for some defendants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is really critical in every respect that a federal judge, particularly at the district court but also at the courts of appeals, are able to see as clearly as possible a litigant before them,” Grady said. “If you’ve watched any of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, not just of federal public defenders but also for those from other underrepresented groups, the degree to which people with extraordinary power don’t get it is alarming.”

Reuters reports that as of this week, President Joe Biden has nominated 27 former or current public defenders to judgeships.

Finegan reiterated his respect for the public defender system and recalled what U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told him when they met: “Do the right thing.”

At one of the first discussions with his office upon being sworn in, “we talked about not only all the things we needed to do and what we needed to accomplish, but also that we needed to be mindful that with our power comes great responsibility,” Finegan said. “When someone is indicted or someone is charged, that person’s life is never gonna be the same no matter what the outcome is of the trial.”

Finegan and Grady also talked briefly about diversity efforts within their offices. Finegan said he intended to look at bringing diversity into management ranks and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office overall. Grady said that a majority of attorneys in her office are women, in a dramatic change from when she first started as a public defender, and that there has also been an increase in ethnic, language and LGBTQ diversity.