FAR WEST TEXAS — Far West Texans have a new top federal prosecutor. On January 26, Ashley Chapman Hoff was appointed to be the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. She officially took office on Sunday.
“I am grateful to the Court for the appointment. I acknowledge and embrace the immense responsibility of this position,” Hoff said in a statement. “I am privileged to work alongside the incredibly talented and dedicated women and men of this office, who give their all every day to protect the public, defend the Constitution, and represent the United States of America.”
A native Texan, Hoff was born and raised in Sherman. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1991, later receiving a law degree from Baylor University in 1994.
Hoff began her legal career as an assistant district attorney in the Harris County district attorney’s office in Houston, where she served as a state trial prosecutor starting in 1995. Later, she also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Texas, where she joined a counterterrorism unit created after 9/11.
Hoff has spent 26 years as a public official and prosecutor, including more than 17 years with the Western District of Texas. Since 2018, she has served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney. She has prosecuted a wide variety of federal offenses in her career, including violent crimes, drug trafficking, firearms violations, identity theft, health care fraud and complex white collar crimes.
The Western District of Texas includes 68 counties spanning about 93,000 square miles. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas has staffed offices in Austin, Alpine, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Waco and San Antonio.