One-on-one with Attorney General Jay Jones
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Attorney General Jay Jones is getting to work.
Just days before Jones took the oath of office, 8News sat down with Virginia's 49th attorney general.
“I’m excited to hit the ground running, so that the people of Virginia know that we are working for them,” Jones said.
Among Jones’ first orders of business is joining several lawsuits to challenge what he called the overreach of the Trump administration in Washington, D.C.
“One in particular to protect federal employees from the mass layoffs that we saw last year. Another to protect against the dismantling of the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] so that people in Virginia are protected by a government entity, that we can put money back in people’s pockets, and then certainly a lawsuit that’s going to protect our education funding here in the Commonwealth,” Jones said.
Jones added that he’s keeping his campaign promise to create several new divisions within the Attorney General’s office.
“Creating this dedicated drug trafficking unit is a huge priority for us. The child safety unit, again for me, I have two young boys, so we want to make sure we’re protecting children across this commonwealth, and other folks who are coming in are really ready to hit the ground running and put these plans into practice and put them into action,” Jones told 8News.
8News asked Jones if he planned to keep in place programs created by his predecessor, Jason Miyares, that worked to reduce violent crime and reduce drug overdose deaths. Jones didn’t commit to keeping those programs, but said he has a public safety plan and a plan to reduce overdose deaths of his own.
