In mid-January, U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada stood before a bouquet of microphones with a phalanx of prosecutors behind him. Their somber faces matched that of their boss, even though the group was celebrating.

A federal judge had just sentenced former Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar to 13 years in prison for his role in a widespread corruption scheme that continues to taint LA politics.

In front of the English-language media, Estrada was dressed in a sharp gray suit with a U.S. Department of Justice pin clipped to his lapel, railing against Huizar for abusing his power to use City Hall as his personal ATM. His comments in Spanish were not as long, but they were louder.

Jose Huizar, he said in a deep, deliberate voice:

Traicion a su propio pueblo

‘He betrayed his own people. Estrada had not used that phrase in English.

Since becoming the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California in the fall of 2022, Estrada, 46, has overseen one high-profile case after another. Convictions in civil corruption scandals in Los Angeles and Anaheim. A lawsuit against City National Bank that resulted in a $31 million settlement over allegations that it avoided lending to buyers in Black and Latino neighborhoods. Charges against white supremacists for causing riots during protests. Investigation into illegal gambling rings, recently uncovering the name of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani. (Ohtani claims that his former interpreter stole the money transferred from his bank account to a bookmaker.)

Estrada leads the nation’s most populous federal judicial district, with more than 25 million residents spread across seven Southern California counties. He is the public face of US law in the region. To hear him code-switch so effortlessly, delivering the same message in different ways depending on the audience, I thought was brutal yet clever. What kind of food was hip enough to do

That

?

Shortly after the press conference, I spoke with Estrada to ask why he decided to be sharper

in Spanish

.

It is deeply personal for the Latino community, Estrada responded as he rushed to speak at a UCLA School of Law symposium on hate crimes. Too often we saw this behavior in our home countries. We have escaped that corruption and see how someone behaves in that matter

feels

as treason.

I reminded him of that conversation last month in his spacious office on the twelfth floor of the old federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. A bowl of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate cups sat in the middle of the table where we sat; his standing desk was behind us. Newspaper and magazine articles from his career as a federal prosecutor and private attorney competed for space with art prints, photos of heroes like Dolores Huerta and shelves full of commemorative mugs from Baker’s grueling relay to Vegas, which she led until recently.

We have done great work for Southern California, important work for Southern California,” Estrada said, referring to Huizar’s belief. He is of average height and as clean-cut in posture as his varnished, high-fade hairdo. ‘The DOJ often likes to operate in obscurity. And there’s a lot of mystery surrounding the Department of Justice, but it’s important that people know that we’re here as an audit.

He was born in Brooklyn to parents who fled poverty and a repressive government in Guatemala. The family regularly returned to the Central American country to visit relatives and during one of those holidays they were robbed at gunpoint.

We immediately went to the police station, and they just laughed and laughed about the whole thing, he recalled. We don’t have a perfect system [in the United States]. But we do have a law enforcement agency that cares about people and wants to protect them. And that was crucial for me to see the difference [with] here.

The Estradas eventually moved to Costa Mesa. In seventh grade, Estrada watched the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series for a school project, but received an F after a teacher accused him of plagiarism. At Mater Dei, a teacher wouldn’t let him take AP history even though he got a straight A, claiming he wouldn’t pass.

There’s a little bit of a chip on your shoulder that comes with that, he admitted. But every time you get these rejections, every time people ask questions, you see it as an opportunity to prove them wrong.

Estrada chose law as a student at UC Irvine after volunteering for the Legal Aid Society and realizing that you can help people in the most difficult of times in the courtroom. He didn’t even know what a U.S. attorney did until he got a summer job in the Santa Ana branch offices while attending Stanford Law School. He helped prepare motions for a successful corruption case against former Santa Ana Councilman Ted Moreno and another case in which a Latino gang continued to prevent black people from using a park.

I remember writing a civil rights memo and thinking, ‘This is exactly the kind of work I should be doing,'” Estrada said.

Throughout his career, he bounced between the U.S. attorney’s office and private practice, focusing on organized crime in the former and civil rights in the latter. His most prominent private case involved the battle for Bruces Beach, a piece of coastal property in Manhattan Beach that was taken from a black couple more than a century ago.

As lead attorney for the descendants of the original owners, Estrada helped defeat a lawsuit that sought to prevent Los Angeles County from transferring the property back to his clients. The groundbreaking case has led to actions in the United States to address similar historical abuses.

While the Bruce’s Beach lawsuit was taking place, the Hispanic National Bar Assn. Approached Estrada in early 2022 to gauge his interest in becoming the region’s U.S. attorney.

And the first thing I thought, Estrada said with a straight face and tone, was a bit like the line from Wayne’s World: “I’m not worth it.”

His legal partners suggested he withdraw from the Bruces Beach case because it might upset people,” he recalled. “But I said, this is too important to worry about politics. Let the chips fall where they may.

President Joe Biden nominated Estrada to head California’s Central District in June 2022; the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him three months later. Estrada is the first American lawyer of Guatemalan descent in the country.

He welcomes the idea that there are additional responsibilities as a Latino in such a powerful position. One of the first cases he was assigned to as an assistant U.S. attorney was the extradition of suspects in the murder of Enrique Kiki Camarena, an undercover DEA agent who was tortured to death in Mexico in 1985.

I was one of a handful of Latinos, one of the few [in the office] who could speak Spanish, Estrada said. My conclusion was also that it is a sad commentary on the diversity of the legal profession. You know, the new guy is the one who’s put there because they don’t know anyone else. So it has been a key focus for me that our office should better reflect the wonderful diversity of Southern California.

We talked about his desire to double down on environmental crimes, consumer protection, civil rights and white supremacist groups in Southern California (“They’re so sophisticated, using things like the dark web, preying on children, manipulating children’s minds to get them on their side,” he said of the white supremacists.)

But I was most curious about civil corruption. While Estrada emphasized that he does not consider Los Angeles more corrupt than other cities, Estrada did criticize what he said is a political culture that has allowed elected officials to amass power somewhat unchecked. He mentioned Huizar and Mark Ridley-Thomas, the LA political heavyweight who was sentenced to three years in prison last summer for fraud and bribery. (Ridley-Thomas is appealing his conviction).

If you allow these kinds of things to consolidate, they grow and can destroy democracy, Estrada said. [The law] should apply to everyone. And when you have the powerful, whether they’re politicians or business leaders, who are able to get away with things that other people can’t get away with, it creates cynicism.

Are there other cases of political corruption in the making in LA?

He started to answer, smiled and then stopped. We will remain vigilant in this area, he finally responded.

Had to ask!

Does Estrada consider himself a crusader?

I wouldn’t use that term, he said, and then thought for a moment. I would say I’m a Southern California kid. It means a lot to me to do right by my people. And that’s why I have this job.

When our hour was up, I asked what message he had for Southern Californians.

I am here for you.

And for the bad guys?

We are a very resourceful, organized and sophisticated office. We’re tracking some of the most dangerous actors in this district. You may not know it, but we’ll keep an eye on it. We investigate quietly, but when we launch an attack, we are aggressive and ensure full accountability.

Let the chips fall where they may.