Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
I’d like to welcome everyone to today’s hearing.
Our panel features A. Tysen Duva, nominated to be Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, and two district court nominees: Justice William J. Crain to the Eastern District of Louisiana and Alexander Van Hook to the Western District of Louisiana.
Senators Kennedy and Moody will give introductions in a moment, but I’d like to say a few words to lead us off.
Mr. Duva has been a federal prosecutor for nearly two decades in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
He has extensive experience conducting investigations and prosecuting a wide array of criminal offenses. These include drug trafficking, violent crime, public corruption, fraud and illegal immigration.
Mr. Duva has prosecuted hundreds of cases. He’s tried 22 to verdict. And he’s received numerous awards for his efforts from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the IRS, the FBI and the Secret Service.
Mr. Duva’s success in prosecuting difficult cases certainly commands respect. And his real-world experience will be an asset to the Criminal Division.
Justice Crain has been an attorney for four decades and he’s served as a judge for 15 years across every level of Louisiana’s state courts.
He spent three years as a trial judge for Louisiana’s 22nd Judicial District Court.
Then he moved into appeals, serving on Louisiana’s First Circuit Court of Appeals for six years.
Since 2019, Justice Crain has served on the Supreme Court of Louisiana.
As a jurist, Justice Crain has presided over and authored hundreds of judicial opinions.
With his extensive experience as a lawyer and judge, he’s extremely well qualified to serve on the federal bench.
Mr. Van Hook is also highly qualified.
He clerked for judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Since then, Mr. Van Hook’s spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana.
He’s served as an AUSA, the Deputy Criminal Chief and multiple stints as the First Assistant and Acting U.S. Attorney in that office.
Mr. Van Hook has extensive courtroom experience, litigating hundreds of cases and trying 18 cases to verdict before a jury.
He also clearly has the experience to make a fine judge.
We’ll hear more about our nominees in a moment, and I look forward to hearing from each of them today.
Before I turn it over to Senator Durbin, I’ll ask everyone to keep their questions limited to the five minutes allotted to keep the hearing on schedule.
I’ll also announce that, after my round of questions, Senator Kennedy has agreed to preside over the remainder of the hearing.
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