Craig Williams (R) served for 30 years with the Marines, part of that as Chief Prosecutor for one of the largest marine bases. He has worked as a federal prosecutor, private counsel for an energy company for 10 years, and now has been a State Representative for parts of Chester & Delaware County since 2020. His priorities in office would be reducing gun violence, senior fraud cases, and addiction caused by the Fentynal epidemic. 

 

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What is a short job description of the office of attorney general?

Yeah. I think most people would think it would be attorney general of Pennsylvania as being the top law enforcement officer of the chief prosecutor of the entire state. In other words, having control and leadership over all of the criminal law prosecutions that are happening at the state level. But lesser known is that the attorney general is also the the chief civil enforcement officer, meaning that he's got an obligation to defend the Constitution with regard to the regulatory agencies in the state and bringing lawsuits on behalf of the state against, you know, companies and other people that are violating the law in Pennsylvania.

And in addition to that, there is an Office of Consumer Protection, which protects people from fraud and other other consumer devices that are being used to to abuse people. And then the Office of Public Engagement which is about educating people about especially online scams and helping people through addiction project.

Those two are underneath the attorney general office?

It's all four of those. So Office of Public Engagement, the Office of Consumer Protection, the Civil Division and the Criminal Division

 

Why do you qualify to step into the role?

Yeah, that's a great question. And it actually turns out of all the seven candidates, I am the one that is the most qualified and none of them can touch my experience. I'm a retired Marine Corps colonel. Almost 30 years in the in the service of my country. I also flew in the F-18 in combat. 56 combat missions decorated twice for valor and combat.

I was a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, both in Denver and in Philadelphia. I prosecuted some of the biggest heroin distribution gangs in the city of Philadelphia. The leaders of that gang are serving life in federal prison with no possibility of parole. I was deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where I did ethics work and detainee litigation around the global war on terror in the context of the Department of Justice.

I was also a terrorism prosecutor, the head prosecutor of the entire Marine Corps Reserve and spent ten years in the energy industry as counsel for a large energy company before I ran for the Pennsylvania House. As I said, none of the other candidates can touch that experience. And all of that experience is directly relevant to the four offices of the office of the attorney general.

And I would note that in the primary, where there are two Republicans facing off, my opponent would come in seventh place in terms of experience.

 

What are your priorities if you take the office?

Thank you. Great question. My number one priority is gun violence, especially in these large cities. I am an experienced project, Safe Neighborhoods prosecutor where we took federal and state law around prohibited persons. In other words, a prior convicted felon is not allowed to possess a gun, even for an instance. And in the federal system, prosecuting a prior convicted felon of possession carries with it a significant federal sentence.

And there's no parole in the federal system. I brought millions of dollars into the county of Delaware County and Philadelphia to hire more assistant district attorneys to take better. All those cases that are involved prior convicted felons. So gun violence is my number one issue. And and the fix to that is prosecution and war, prosecution and imprisonment. The next issue is around senior fraud.

And as I talked about with the Office of Public Engagement, in the opposite consumer protection, I think it's extraordinarily important that we get out to our senior community right now and help them understand all of the schemes that are in place to deprive them of their life savings, especially now involving the use of artificial intelligence. And then my third and very important priority is dealing with addiction.

I lost my brother in 2020 to a drug overdose. He suffered from addiction since he was in high school and died in his thirties. So this has become a passion project of mine in the House of Representative And it would continue to be so when I get to the attorney general's office.

 

What is something about the current administration you would change and/or keep the same?

So the one thing that I would I would keep the same, if not plus up a little bit is the Office of Public Engagement. They're doing a fantastic job. I work with the Office of Public Engagement in the context of my state representative job getting into my communities and educating them about the various schemes that can destroy their lives financially in terms of something that I would change I would specifically get into these large cities Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, York, New York, who's got one of the worst murder rates in the entire country.

And bring the attorney general's office to to bear with concurrent jurisdiction, where concurrent jurisdiction meaning that not only the local district attorney, but the attorney general himself has jurisdiction to come in and prosecute gun crime. I passed that bill out of the House of Representatives in 20, 22. It didn't get passed the Senate because we were in an election year.

But I'll get that bill passed. I'll get a concurrent jurisdiction and we'll go into these large cities with a large force of deputy attorney generals and attorney generals, agents, and we'll prosecute those gun crimes that the local D.A. will not.

 

What do you have that your other primary candidates do not?

A wealth of experience? I'm winning elections in a part of the state where Republicans are winning. You may not know in Erie that in Delaware, County, I am the last Republican standing in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. And I'm winning elections where no other Republican is winning because I'm decent to people. I stand on my principles, but I'm able to work with both sides of the aisle.

But I've had to do that to get things done. But as I've said before, my opponent can't touch my breadth of experience. He went into the NBA after having some troubled year in high school, which is all you know, his story, not mine. And it went to a local college and local law school, spent his entire career in a county DA's office.

I've worked for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, colonel in the Marine Corps, combat veteran Department of Justice. The House of Representatives is in a ten year career in energy law He can't touch my experience.

 

What is a topic/discussion point around the office of Attorney General and what is your take on it?

Yeah, I think one of the things that they're doing extraordinarily well that I will continue that is important to me is taking on these opioid manufacturers. You know, I think that most of us agree at this point that they were selling a product in the marketplace and getting people addicted and having that turnover faster than we could realize.

And related closely to that is the technology we're having. So as you can see, much of what I want to work on revolves around addiction and getting our families back on track. And related to that is that I don't think very many people are taking into consideration how families of addicts and families of alcoholics are suffering. They seem to be the the undiscussed silent people and the backdrop.

But I'm sure most people that live in a family with an addict would agree that they spend every day of their lives on pins and needles waiting for the call that they're in the hospital again. They're incarcerated again, they've been in an auto accident again or what have you. Every day is traumatic for them, too. And I want to come up with some programs that would help them.