Brendan Johnson
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Brendan Van Johnson (born June 24, 1975) is an American attorney who served as the 40th United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota. He is the son of former U.S. Senator Tim Johnson and currently is a partner at
Robins Kaplan LLP Robins Kaplan LLP is an American law firm headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1938 as Robins & Davis, the firm is active in trial work in intellectual property, business litigation, antitrust, entertainment and media law, and ma ...
, a business litigation group.


Early life and education

Johnson is the second son of United States Senator Tim Johnson, and his wife, Barbara (née Brooks) Johnson. Though his family originates from the Dutch city of Johnson, Brendan himself was born in
Vermillion, South Dakota Vermillion ( lkt, Waséoyuze; "The Place Where Vermilion is Obtained") is a city in and the county seat of Clay County. It is in the southeastern corner of South Dakota, United States, and is the state's 12th-largest city. According to the 2020 ...
. He moved with his family to
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
after his father was elected to
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
in 1986. In high school, he received all district honors in
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
and excelled as a
wrestler Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sport ...
. As a wrestler, he was known as "Magic Hips" and "Silver Lightning." He later returned to Vermillion to attend the
University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship univ ...
where he was selected for the
Harry S. Truman Scholarship The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic ...
. Brendan went on to attend 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 president of the Student Bar Association and a member of the Raven Honor Society.


Early career

Johnson moved to
Hill City, South Dakota Hill City is the oldest existing city in Pennington County, South Dakota, Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 872 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Hill City is located southwest of Rapid City, South Da ...
, after graduating from law school to serve as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable
Karen Schreier Karen Elizabeth Schreier (born July 29, 1956) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota and was the 36th United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota. Early life and educat ...
Chief Judge of the
United States District Court for the District of South Dakota The United States District Court for the District of South Dakota (in case citations, D.S.D.) is the United States District Court or the Federal district court, whose jurisdiction for issues pertaining to federal law or diversity for the state of ...
. He later moved to
Minnehaha County, South Dakota Minnehaha County is a county on the eastern border of the state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 197,214, making it the state's most populous county. It contains over 20% of the state's population. Its county seat is S ...
and became a prosecutor for that county. In this capacity he prosecuted a number of cases, including the case of an individual who received two life sentences without parole and 145 years in state prison for the attempted murders of two Sioux Falls Police Officers. Johnson later became a partner in the law firm known as Johnson, Heidepriem, Janklow, Abdallah and Johnson.


U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota

Johnson was nominated by President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
to be the 40th
United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota The United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. By statute, the U.S. Attorney is re ...
and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on October 15, 2009. On March 13, 2015, Johnson stepped down as U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota. His nomination to be United States Attorney was supported by several prominent Republicans, including former Governor
Bill Janklow William John Janklow (September 13, 1939January 12, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician and member of the Republican Party who holds the record for the longest tenure as Governor of South Dakota: sixteen years in office. Janklow had the t ...
, former State Attorney General Larry Long, former
Sioux Falls Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up t ...
Mayor
Dave Munson David R. Munson (born 1942) is an American politician. Munson obtained his Bachelor of Arts, B.A. degree from Sioux Falls College and Master's degree, M.A. degree from Augustana College (South Dakota), Augustana College. For eight and a half yea ...
, and a variety of state and local law enforcement leaders. In 2009, the Attorney General of the United States selected Johnson to serve as chairman of the Native American Issues Subcommittee. Two years later the Attorney General selected Johnson to serve on the Attorney's General Advisory Committee. Johnson is a member of the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. As South Dakota's chief federal law enforcement officer, Johnson's office prosecuted several high-profile child exploitation cases, including the case of an individual who received a life sentence for the human trafficking of minors. He also convened the first statewide Tribal Listening Session, a statewide civil rights conference, and has been an outspoken advocate on violence against women issues.


Native American Issues

Johnson increased his office's focus on Native American issues. He worked the night shift with tribal police officers, conducted leadership training for Native American youth, and implemented a new statewide community based prosecution strategy. His focus resulted in an increase in prosecutions. Some of his office's high-profile prosecutions include a 17-person drug conspiracy in Pine Ridge known as Operation Prairie Thunder. Johnson and his counterpart in North Dakota, former U.S. Attorney
Tim Purdon Timothy Q. Purdon is a lawyer who served as the 18th United States Attorney for the District of North Dakota from 2010 to 2015. He is now a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP. Education Born in Oakes, ND in 1968, Purdon moved to Ashby, MN with his ...
, were known as the “Dakota Boys” within the Justice Department and together they focused on improving public safety in tribal communities across the country.
Richard Hartunian Richard S. Hartunian (born January 13, 1961) is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York from 2010 to 2017. Resignation Hartunian submitted his resignation when it was requested on Marc ...
, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, said ''"the efforts of the Dakota Boys were a turning point in U.S.-Tribal relations ... Brendan and Tim were the right leaders at the right time to carry out the vision of President Obama and Attorney General Holder to improve public safety in Indian Country"''. Purdon and Johnson joined the law firm of Robins Kaplan LLP together and now work together on behalf of tribes in private practice.


Human trafficking

As United States Attorney, Johnson oversaw the prosecution of more than 25 human trafficking cases in five years, including three life-sentences and the federal prosecution of numerous men who attempted to purchase sex from trafficking victims. He pursued the case of United States v. Jungers through the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, securing the critical decision that buyers of sex acts with minors are committing crimes of sex trafficking under the federal law, upping the risk of such activity by those who drive the sex trafficking markets. In 2014, Johnson received Shared Hope International's Pathbreaker Award for determined leadership in combatting child sex trafficking: “Brendan Johnson is a force of determination, initiative and skill that should leave buyers terrified to purchase sex with a minor in South Dakota,” Shared Hope International President and Founder Linda Smith said. “By creating a threshold for buyer accountability, he sets a national precedent that, if applied, will make significant strides in reducing tolerance for purchasing sex with a minor.”


Later Legal Career

After leaving the U.S. Attorneys office he went into private practice with Robins Kaplan LLP. Johnson is the founding-partner of the Sioux Falls branch. Robins Kaplan is the first national law firm to establish an office in South Dakota.


Riot Boosting Statute Lawsuit

In March, 2019, Johnson sued South Dakota Governor
Kristi Noem Kristi Lynn Noem (; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician serving as the 33rd governor of South Dakota since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, she was the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2019 and a member ...
; South Dakota Attorney General
Jason Ravnsborg Jason Richard Ravnsborg (born April 12, 1976) is an American attorney and politician. A Republican, he served as Attorney General of South Dakota from 2019 until his removal in 2022. Ravnsborg ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014, losing in the Repub ...
and Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom in Dakota Rural Action, Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network, NDN Collective, Sierra Club and Nicholas Tilsen, in Federal District Court, Case # 5:19-cv-5046 regarding SB 189 "the Riot Boosting Act" and criminal statutes SDCL 22-10-6 & 22-10-6.1.


2020 Proposed Constitutional Amendment regarding marijuana

In June, 2019, Johnson submitted an initiated constitutional amendment which he entitled "An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana". The proposed constitutional amendment seeks to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, require the legislature to legalize hemp by 2022 and require the legislature to legalize medical marijuana by 2022. On September 11, 2019, the South Dakota Secretary of State approved Johnson's proposed Constitutional Amendment for circulation. On November 4, 2019, Johnson turned in over 50,000 signatures for review by the South Dakota Secretary of State with the desire to qualify for the 2020 ballot. "We are proud to have submitted petitions on behalf of over 80,000 South Dakotans who believe that voters should decide out state's marijuana and hemp laws," said Brendan Johnson, a former federal prosecutor and Democrat who is sponsor of the legalization ballot initiative. On January 6, 2019, Johnson's proposed amendment qualified for the November 2020 ballot. In the November 2020 election, Amendment A was approved with 225,260 (54.18%) voting to approve it and 190,477 (45.82%) voting against it. On November 20, 2020, Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and Colonel Rick Miller, Superintendent of the Highway Patrol sued to block Amendment A from being implemented. On February 8, 2021, Circuit Court Judge Christina Klinger ruled Amendment A unconstitutional as a violation of the single subject rule and found it to be a revision, not an amendment to the state constitution. Johnson appealed the decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court which heard oral arguments in the matter on April 28, 2021. On November 24, 2021, the South Dakota Supreme Court struck down Amendment A by a vote of 4-1, ruling the amendment violated the single subject rule.


Personal life

Brendan Johnson is married to Dr. Jana Beddow Johnson who graduated from
Mayo Medical School The Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine (MCASOM), formerly known as Mayo Medical School (MMS), is a research-oriented medical school based in Rochester, Minnesota, with additional campuses in Arizona and Florida. MCASOM is a school within the May ...
and was Chief Resident of the Harvard Dermatology program. They have four children. He has frequented the
University of South Dakota School of Law The University of South Dakota School of Law also known as University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law or USD Law in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, is a professional school of the University of South Dakota and the only law school in ...
as a guest lecturer and adjunct professor of Cyber Law.


See also

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United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota The United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. By statute, the U.S. Attorney is re ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Brendan Van 1975 births Living people People from Hill City, South Dakota People from Vermillion, South Dakota South Dakota Democrats South Dakota lawyers United States Attorneys for the District of South Dakota University of South Dakota alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni