Arthur Lee Bentley III (born January 26, 1959) is an

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who was the United States Attorney for the

Middle District of Florida The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (in case citations, M.D. Fla.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appea ...

from 2014 until 2017. In January 2018, he joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, a law firm which has an office based in Tampa, Florida.

Career

Bentley was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, graduated from the University of Georgia, and earned his juris doctor degree in 1983 from the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

, where he was '' Order of the Coif'' and an editor of the '' Virginia Law Review''. Following law school, Bentley clerked for Supreme Court Justice

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in the 1984 Term, and for

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Chief Judge

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. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2000, Bentley spent ten years in private practice with

Hogan & Hartson Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan & Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. It employs about 2,400 lawyers acr ...

in Washington, D.C. and was Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, an Attorney-Advisor in the

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with the U.S. Department of Justice.

United States Attorney's Office

In 2000, Bentley joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. In July 2013 when U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill resigned to take a position in the private sector with the Freeh Group, Bentley became the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. He was formally nominated by President Barack Obama in June 2014 on the bi-partisan recommendation of Florida's

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, Republican

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida Hous ...

and Democrat Bill Nelson. Bentley was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 16, 2014. In July 2016, Bentley's office charged Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida with 24 counts of federal corruption, accusing Brown and her Chief of Staff Ronnie Simmons of using Brown's position in Congress to solicit more than $800,000 for what federal prosecutors call a "sham education charity." In February 2017, Simmons pleaded guilty to federal charges and agreed to testify against Brown at her upcoming trial.

References

External links

U.S. Attorney's office bio
* Video: A. Lee Bentley III, U.S. Attorney Middle District of Florida discusses Brevard coaches' arrests on drug charges
FloridaToday.com
(part of USA Today). Retrieved March 11, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bentley, A Lee People from Tuscaloosa, Alabama United States Attorneys for the Middle District of Florida University of Georgia alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni 1959 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States United States Department of Justice lawyers