Matthew Whitaker

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Whitaker is a lawyer with Graves, Bartle, Marcus and Garrett, LLC an independent law firm associated with The Ashcroft Group LLC.  He served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa from 2004 to 2009 where he directed the prosecution of federal crimes including mail and wire fraud, public corruption, child pornography, firearms violations, narcotics trafficking, corporate fraud, and terrorism financing. During his tenure, he implemented an aggressive initiative against child predators. Designated “Project Safe Childhood”, the initiative partnered the United States Attorney’s Office with federal, state, and local law enforcement to track down and prosecute child sex predators and child pornographers. Indictments for Project Safe Childhood crimes increased dramatically over Whitaker’s five plus years as US Attorney.

In 2007, Whitaker’s office joined with the Internal Revenue Service to initiate a new task force dedicated to identifying and prosecuting those committing financial crimes and, under his direction, also emphasized the prosecution of violent crime, drug trafficking, white collar fraud, and immigration violations. Whitaker also served on the Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a group of 30 United States Attorneys across the country focusing on the Department of Justice’s efforts against drug trafficking. Additionally, he was a member of the Violent and Organized Crime Subcommittee and the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.
Following graduation in 1995, Whitaker moved to the Twin Cities and worked for the law firm of Briggs & Morgan.  In 1998, Whitaker joined SUPERVALU, a Fortune 500 grocery company, as corporate counsel.  In 2001, Whitaker and his family moved back to Iowa and he joined the law firm of Finely Alt Smith where he remained until his appointment as United States Attorney.  In 2002, Whitaker was an unsuccessful candidate for State Treasurer of Iowa.

Whitaker received his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in 1991. In 1995, he graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in addition to earning his Master of Business Administration. While at the University of Iowa, Whitaker was a tight end on the 1990 Big Ten Champion football team and played in the 1991 Rose Bowl game versus Washington and the 1991 Holiday Bowl versus BYU.  During his time as a student-athlete, Whitaker earned academic All-Big Ten honors in 1990, 1991, and 1992 and academic All-American honors in 1992.  Whitaker also received the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1992.  The Big Ten’s oldest award, the Medal of Honor, first awarded in 1914, is given annually to a student in the graduating class of each university that demonstrated proficiency in scholarship and athletics.  In 2009, Whitaker was selected for induction into the Iowa High School Football Hall of Fame.