Gregg Jeffrey Costa (born 1972) is a Texas federal prosecutor and a current federal judicial nominee for the Galveston Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He currently is one of two prosecutors involved in the federal prosecution of alleged Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. President Obama nominated him to the judgeship on September 8, 2011. Costa's judicial nomination has support from Texas' two Republican senators and from Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.[1]
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Born in Baltimore, Costa earned a bachelor's degree in 1994 from Dartmouth College. He then taught elementary school in Sunflower, Mississippi as part of the Teach for America program from 1994 until 1996. He then earned a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1999.[2]
From 1999 until 2000, Costa served as a law clerk to Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the United States Supreme Court from 2001 until 2002.[2]
From 2002 until 2005, Costa worked as an associate at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Houston.[2]
Since 2005, Costa has served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Texas.[2]
Likely Costa's highest-profile prosecution in his six years as a federal prosecutor has been the case against alleged Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, who was indicted in 2009. Stanford currently is awaiting trial.
In January 2011, Stanford's legal team requested a delay of the start of his scheduled January 24, 2011 trial, noting that they had only taken over his defense in October 2010. Costa told the judge presiding over the trial that while he did not object to some delay in the trial, "the requested continuance of two years is excessive."[3]
In February 2011, Stanford sued Costa and his fellow prosecutor Paul Pelletier, along with several employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, complaining of "abusive law enforcement" and seeking $7.2 billion in damages.[4] In March 2011, Stanford's attorneys argued that the defendant's right to a speedy trial had been violated. Costa, however, told the Associated Press that delays largely were the result of Stanford's own requests for continuances.[5]
In July 2011, Texas' two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, sent a letter to President Barack Obama,[1] recommending that he nominate Costa to the vacant seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas that had been created when Judge John David Rainey took senior status in June 2010. The seat would be based in the Galveston Division. [1] [6] The anticipated nomination earned bipartisan support, as Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who serves as the spokesman for Texas Democrats on federal judicial matters, urged the president to nominate Costa as well.[1]
On September 8, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Costa to the seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.[2]
Costa's nomination currently is pending before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.