Jonathan Blanton

First Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Blanton is the senior appointed officer to Attorney General Dave Yost and is responsible for overseeing the legal and investigatory work of the office. Blanton began his career in rural southern Ohio where, after a brief stint in private practice, he spent more than 10 years as the elected prosecuting attorney for Jackson County. In that role, he represented the state of Ohio in cases ranging from speeding violations to aggravated murder and child sex offenses, sometimes within the span of a single day. In 2011, Blanton joined the Attorney General’s Office as director of the office’s then-new Economic Crimes Unit, a group dedicated to assisting local law enforcement with tracking down and prosecuting scammers, bad contractors and criminal telemarketers. He went on to serve as chief of the office’s Consumer Protection Section from 2014 through 2018 and, from 2019 through July 2022, as deputy attorney general for major litigation. In the deputy attorney general role, Blanton directed and led some of the office’s highest-profile civil matters, including litigation against a number of opioid manufacturers and pharmaceutical distributors. In 2021, he was recognized by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) for his role in securing settlements that will require four companies to pay a combined $26 billion toward the nation’s fight against the opioid epidemic. Since joining the Attorney General’s Office, Blanton has served as a subject-matter expert and trainer for NAAG on a variety of topics, including tactics for maximizing the effectiveness of prescription drug monitoring programs, regulating medical professionals, and developing and litigating claims against pharmaceutical supply-chain participants. He has also served as a faculty member for a number of litigation-focused trainings within the Attorney General’s Office and has presented at multiple law enforcement and legal training events on the state and national levels. Blanton, a graduate of Ohio University and the University of Kentucky College of Law, is admitted to practice in Ohio’s state courts and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.