AG HOLDER'S REMARKS AT ST. LOUIS FBI FIELD OFFICE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks at the St. Louis FBI Field Office

~ Wednesday, August 20, 2014

We have brought to this area very experienced prosecutors, we have very experienced agents who are handling this matter, and doing so, I think, in a fine way.

I'm going to get briefed on more of the details about the investigation.  I've been kept up to date, but there's nothing that can replace actually coming to the office that's handling the matter, and being able to look in the face the people who are, I think at this point, very ably handling this investigation.

Now, our investigation is different from that which the state is doing.  We are looking for violations of federal, criminal civil rights statutes, which is different from what the local investigation is.

We have brought a substantial number of people here, of agents here, who have done a great job in the canvassing that they did over the past weekend, and continue to follow leads so that we can do a thorough and a fair job of making a determination about what happened on August the ninth.  And I'm confident that through the ability of these people, we will be able to make a determination about whether or not any federal statutes have in fact been violated.

My hope also is that through the trip that I'm making out here today and by expressing the importance of the way in which this investigation is going, that hopefully will have a calming influence on the area, if people know that a federal, thorough investigation is being done--is being manned by these very capable people.  My hope is that that will have—give people some degree of confidence that the appropriate things are being done by their federal government.

Again, we are doing something different, okay, than that which the state is doing--than what the county prosecutors are doing.  But nevertheless, I think that what we are doing, hopefully, will have a positive impact.

Thank you.