Troy A. Eid (born 1963) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney for the District of Colorado from 2006 to 2009. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School and University of Denver College of Law, where he teaches civil and criminal law with a focus on energy, natural resources, environmental regulation, and American Indian law.
Early life and education Troy Eid was born in 1963 in Chicago, Illinois to Edward and Sandra Eid. Edward Eid was an Egyptian who immigrated to the United States in 1957 with $100. Eid was raised in Wheat Ridge, Colorado and graduated from Stanford University in 1986, majoring in Russian Language and Literature. At Stanford, he was a research assistant for then-Associate Professor Condoleezza Rice.
Eid was elected editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, and met his future wife, Allison Hartwell, while standing in line at a dorm cafeteria, where she was working as a food-service worker.Burnett, Sara. "U.S. attorney craves tasks." Rocky Mountain News, September 28, 2006, News section, pg. 20A. Eid graduated in 1986 and, along with Hartwell, attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he earned his J.D. degree in 1991.
Career Eid is admitted to practice law in Colorado and the Navajo Nation, and his legal practice has focused on environmental, natural resources and federal Indian law. He was elected to membership in the American Law Institute,"Press Release: Troy A. Eid sworn in as United States Attorney." The United States Attorney's Office District of Colorado, August 14, 2006. Retrieved on August 29, 2008. and has been recognized as one of the country's top practicing attorneys in both American Indian Law and environmental law by Chambers USA"Troy A. Eid, United States Attorney, District of Colorado. (Official Biography)" United States Department of Justice. Retrieved September 1, 2008, but not currently on-line. See archive.org. and was named by The Denver Post as one of 2007's "People to Watch".Mook, Bob. "Eid welcomes new challenges; People to Watch '07." Denver Business Journal, January 8, 2007. He passed the Navajo Nation bar examination in 2005 and now chairs the Committee on Training for the Navajo Nation Bar Association, which is responsible for legal education and the semi-annual bar exam on the country's largest Indian reservation.
Eid served as a law clerk to Edith Jones, Chief Judge of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before entering private law practice in 1992 at Holme Roberts & Owen in Denver. From 1994 to 1999, Eid served as general counsel and chief operating officer of the National Information Infrastructure Testbed, an Internet technology research consortium formed to prototype advanced Internet applications in such areas as manufacturing, health care and environmental protection. In his capacity with the consortium, Eid directed engineering teams in North America, Europe and Asia.
Cabinet of Bill Owens From 1999 to 2003, Eid served in the cabinet of then-Colorado Governor Bill Owens. Owens first appointed him chief legal counsel, where he oversaw the appointment of 34 state judges. Eid also served as executive director for the Department of Personnel & Administration, where he was responsible for Colorado's workforce of 70,000. Within days of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, Eid was chosen to head an independent commission reviewing the Jefferson County law enforcement response. He also chaired the Colorado State's Board of Ethics, served on more than a dozen state boards during his time in Owens' cabinet and eventually served as chief administrative officer for Colorado's $13-billion state government. Owens described Eid as a model of integrity and uprightness while serving on the cabinet, and said of his work during that time, "It's a trial by fire, and when you survive it, typically it means you're going to be a very good lawyer." In recognition of his reforms to the state personnel system, Eid – who co-chaired a statewide commission with former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm (D) focused on the future of the state workforce – was awarded the "Outstanding Governmental Official of the Year Award" by both the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2003.
U.S. Attorney When Colorado U.S. Attorney John Suthers was appointed the state's attorney general in December 2004, Eid was considered for his replacement, along with Larimer County District Attorney Stu VanMeveren and Arapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters.Burnett, Sara. "Allard: Nominee's rejection 'strange.'" Rocky Mountain News, May 18, 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2008. Eid withdrew his name from consideration in January 2006, claiming the 13-month selection process was taking too long.Caldwell, Alicia. "U.S. attorney candidate bails, process took 'too long.'" The Denver Post, January 27, 2006, Denver & The West section pg. B-01. Eid also withdrew in part because his wife, Allison Eid, was under consideration for the Denver-based Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the appointment would have created a conflict of interest since the U.S. Attorney oversees cases that often end up in the circuit court. Eid denied that his withdrawal had anything to do with Jack Abramoff, who had recently been fired from Greenberg Traurig and who was later sentenced to serve five years and ten months in prison on numerous fraud convictions. Eid insisted the fact that he had been selected for an internal ethics committee at the firm indicated that he didn't "have an Abramoff problem."
After withdrawing, Eid announced he would run for an at-large seat on the University of Colorado Board of Regents. In March 2006, Allison Eid was appointed Associate Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, which removed the potential conflict because the U.S. Attorney does not get involved in state court matters. By that time, VanMeveren and Peters had also been removed from consideration for U.S. Attorney. When the White House asked for three more names, Senator Wayne Allard recommended only William Leone, who had been serving as acting U.S. Attorney since January 1, 2005. Leone, however, had been placed on a list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired for political reasons by Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,Taylor, Marisa and Talev, Margaret. "2 additional prosecutors were considered for ouster." Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, May 16, 2007. Retrieved on August 30, 2008. and the White House instead asked Eid to reconsider. White House officials did not consider any other candidates besides Eid, who suspended his campaign for the University of Colorado Board of Regents in order to accept the U.S. Attorney position.
Eid was appointed to the position by President George W. Bush on June 9, 2006, making him the 41st United States Attorney for the state of Colorado and the first Arab-American ever appointed to serve as a U.S. Attorney. Eid, who said he was "totally stunned" by the invitation, was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on August 4, 2006. He served as Colorado's chief federal criminal prosecutor and represented the United States in civil cases where the government was party to a lawsuit. When Eid started the position with about 2,500 civil and criminal cases among 120 people, which he described as one of the heaviest caseloads outside of Washington, D.C. In addition to the cases, Eid said his priorities upon assuming the office were enforcing immigration laws, cracking down on drug trafficking, and creating a cyber-crime unit to fight child solicitation and pornography. In his first few weeks on the job, Eid visited with local, state and federal law enforcement and met one-on-one with everybody on his approximately 140-person staff.
In August 2008, Eid charged Marc Garold Ramsey, 39, for sending a threatening letter with a white powdery substance to 2008 Republican Party presidential nominee Senator John McCain."The Trail: McCain Campaign: Colo. Inmate Charged with Powder Mailing." The Washington Post, August 23, 2008, pg. A06. Although the powder was not lethal, Ramsey could face at least five years on charges of knowingly mailing a threat. Later that month, Eid also assessed an alleged assassination plot against then-Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, after alleged plotters Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and Nathan Johnson were arrested just prior to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Although the trio were charged with drug and weapon charges, Eid declared that the racist statements the suspects made following their arrests had not risen to the legal standard that would have allowed the filing of federal charges for threatening a presidential candidate.Johnson, Kirk and Lichtblau, Eric. "Officials see no 'credible threat' to Obama in racist rants." The New York Times, August 26, 2008. Retrieved on August 29, 2008. At an August 26 press conference, Eid dismissed the trio as drug addicts and said the "meth heads were not a true threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado."Ensslin, John C.; Villa, Judi; and Washington, April M. "U.S. attorney 'confident' Obama not threatened." Rocky Mountain News, August 26, 2008. Retrieved on August 29, 2008.
Eid was accused by some of showing a political bias by prosecuting Ramsey without charging Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, but Eid defended the decision; in a letter responding to the criticism, he wrote, "It would have been disgraceful for me or any other prosecutor to charge someone for a crime he didn't commit. ... There was no probable cause to support such a charge. To the extent you challenge my motives or those of the many investigating agents and career prosecutors who all reached this conclusion in this matter, you're mistaken."Stein, Jeff. "The Obama assassination attempt that wasn't." Congressional Quarterly, September 5, 2008. Retrieved on September 7, 2008. Eid aides admitted, however, that the decision not to charge was at least in part because they did not believe a jury would convict them based on the reliability of Johnson's testimony; Jeffrey Dorschner, Eid's spokesman, said a defense attorney "would tear him apart."
Eid also focused extensively on Native American issues while serving as Colorado's U.S. Attorney. He partnered with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Director of its Justice Department, Janelle Doughty, to create a regional program to train tribal, state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal criminal law on Indian reservations in Southwestern Colorado. This program later expanded to include officers from more than 35 Indian tribes from 17 states. Eid's pilot program gained the attention of Senator Byron L. Dorgan, who praised it as a national success story in strengthening criminal justice in Indian Country and used it as the model for the bill's expanded training provisions.
Joseph Nacchio trial