Kate Littlejohn

Kate Littlejohn
Biographical Information
Status	Alive
Familial Information
Parents	Father
Professional Information
Profession	Assistant US Attorney
Workplace	US Attorney's Office
Appearances
First	Pilot
Seasons	1
Portrayed by	Susannah Flood

Kate Littlejohn is one of the new Assistant US Attorneys at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

History

Middle School Trip

When she was in seventh grade, her big class trip was to the Capitol. She had been looking forward to the trip since she was five. She'd learned everything about the building and had a notebook full of pictures so she could make sure she saw everything she'd learned about. On the way there, 18 miles away, a kid named Richard Prince took out his phone. Richard sat behind her in history class and cheated, which led to him having the best grade in the class, despite not liking school. The only rule of the trip was no electronics, so a teacher told him to put the phone away. He refused and it devolved into an argument while Kate sat with her hands over her ears flipping through her book. Then she felt the wheels of the bus turning and they went home. She didn't get to go on the trip because of one kid who didn't want to follow the rules. As an adult, she told Roger she still hadn't been to the Capitol.

Swearing-in Ceremony

On the day she was set to be sworn in as a new AUSA, Kate arrived at the courthouse early and joined Sandra, who was already there waiting. She quickly clarified that she'd allow Sandra to enter first because she knew she'd been there first. They were steadily joined by the other new attorneys. At eight, Leonard Knox came in and walked into the courtroom, despite Kate informing him that Sandra had arrived there first to wait. Inside the courtroom, Tina Krissman introduced herself and had the two sides sit on opposite sides, knowing they wouldn't want to sit together. She then explained to them what would be happening and introduced Nicholas Byrne, who gave a speech about their work and swore them all in.

First Case

After meeting with Roger Gunn, Kate was assigned her first case. It was a fraud case, so she prepared for the bail hearing. At the hearing, Jay argued that Adam Dyle should have his bail lowered so he could take care of his terminally ill twin brother. Kate then revealed that the brother wasn't real and Adam Dyle wasn't even his real name. He was a con artist who created a fake government organization to swindle local businesses out of money. The request for lowered bail was denied. When Jay met with Adam again, Adam said he was disappointed and kept up the con act, convincing Jay that he really believed he was part of a secret government organization. Jay went to Kate with this, but she showed him a video of Adam in jail talking on the phone to someone about getting his attorney to believe everything. After this realization, Jay and Kate came to a deal for a 64-month jail sentence.

Opioid Crisis

When Douglas Delap put pressure on Roger to find an opioid case to prosecute, he handed the responsibility off to Kate and Seth. Seth wanted to find a hole in by searching their homes for any evidence they didn't hide as carefully as their offices. They interrupted Byrne's dinner to try to get a warrant to search the houses. He declined their office and called it a lazy strategy. Kate then insisted they'd do it their way. She looked through the financial records of all the doctors and found one who didn't have a housekeeper on payroll like the others, despite having money and a large house. They believed he had an undocumented immigrant working for him and wanted to use that as leverage to get him to plead guilty to the opioid charges. Kate and Seth parked outside his house and watched as Margo Elata came out. They brought her in and asked her about how she was paid and employed. She revealed that it went far beyond being undocumented. He was holding her passport hostage and forcing her to work for very low wages. They also learned that he was using her information to help launder money for a drug cartel. After he was arrested, they asked Judge Byrne to support their attempt to get money allocated for Margo from the money that was seized from Dr. Rollins.

Dani Rios

Kate was assigned the case of Dani Rios, a whistle-blower who was charged with leaking classified documents while working at the NSA revealing that the government was using private medical records to find and deport undocumented immigrants. The prosecution hadn't gone to the press because Dani was a sympathetic defendant, so Sandra went to the press herself, putting pressure on them to say something. Kate didn't want to respond, because she felt it would have unintended consequences for Dani and Sandra and wanted to see what those were first before responding. Dani told Sandra she didn't want a deal, but Sandra went into negotiation with Kate anyway. Kate figure out that Dani didn't want a deal, which is why Sandra had no maximum she could accept. They tried again to make a deal, but Sandra backed out and told Kate she'd see her in court. They went to the courtroom, where Sandra asked for the documents Dani revealed to be released because they were required to proved that Dani hurt the US or benefited a foreign nation. Kate said they'd produce the document, but they'd have to be redacted, which would take 18 months at least and Dani would remained jailed during that time. Judge Byrne called both attorneys into his chambers, where he left them to work out a deal. After Kate told the story of what made her want to become a prosecutor, Sandra proposed a deal that involved Dani doing time served plus three years of supervised release and Kate agreed.

ATF Sting

Seth asked Kate to attend a meeting with him and two ATF agents. She was meant just to agree with him, but when she didn't like what he said, she sided with the agents instead. In the meeting, she caught the eye of Anya Ooms, who approached her and asked for her number, in case she had any questions. Anya called her later that night, saying she had a CI who told her about a person who approached him about having someone killed. Kate told her she didn't have enough for an arrest, so she'd have to send someone new in to avoid compromising her CI's cover. She and Kate disagreed over which agent to send in, but Anya cited her masters in criminology and years of experience when she made her choice. She tried to make small talk with Kate, but Kate wanted to keep working. Later, Kate came with them on the sting and helped change the plan slightly to make it work better. They waited for their suspect and were shocked that she was a middle-aged soccer mom, looking to have her daughter's abusive boyfriend killed. She was arrested and the sting was over.

Animal Trafficking

When Roger learned that Kate doesn't like animals, he assigned her to a case involving animal trafficking in which a red panda died in transit. She met with the trafficker's lawyer, Sharon Dodds, who said the panda was alive when it arrived in the US and customs killed it. She was confused because they usually just pay a fine and move on, but Kate wanted to be thorough. She said she'd be in touch after she saw the body. She met with an animal handler who had the body, who said that the red panda, whom he'd named Monte, was definitely dead at least a day before he arrived in the US. While she was there, she held a lizard named Mango. The case was later dropped because the traffickers gave up a bigger player. Despite this, Kate went back to the animal handler and adopted Mango.

Senate Seat

Roger assigned Kate, Leonard, and Seth to look into Bill Shales, who was accused to trying to sell a senate seat. This was rushed when they learned an article was coming out at nine that evening about the case, which would give Shales time to destroy the evidence and they were unable to stop it or get Byrne to grant an injunction to stop it. They then brought in the aides, who refused to turn on their boss and only took shots at each other. When Seth started to suspect Shales' Chief of Staff, Tim Klein, wasn't as close to Shales as it appeared, he suggested they should bring him in. They offered him immunity in exchange for his help. He called Shales and said the FBI had shown up at his house asking about the senate seat, but Shales revealed nothing on the call. They were disappointed until Shales called back on Tim's burner phone that Shales had given him and told Tim to destroy all evidence of his wrongdoing. Shales was arrested for obstruction of justice and Roger took the AUSAs out for drinks.

Relationships

Romantic

Anya Ooms

Kate caught the eye of ATF Agent Anya Ooms when she was pulled into a meeting by Seth Oliver. Anya then went to Kate to ask for her number in case she needed help. She called Kate that day to get legal advice on a case and then asked Kate to join her on a sting to get what she needed to make a case. Anya tried to get to know Kate while they worked, but Kate insisted on continuing to work. After the arrest was made, Anya called Kate at home and asked her for advice about asking someone she works with to do something dangerous. They went to a gun range, where Anya helped Kate fire a weapon. After she was done, Anya leaned in to kiss her. When Kate pulled back, Anya apologized for being too forward, but then Kate leaned in and they shared a kiss.

Kate continued to see Anya and it progressed to Anya spending the night. In the morning, Anya told Kate she really likes her, even with her weirdness, and then she seduced her into not going to work quite as early.

Leonard Knox

Leonard began to suspect that Kate had feelings for him after she invited him to have dinner with her. He asked Kate if they would work together, but she denied any intent on her part to ask him out romantically.

Familial

She says she didn't have much of a mom growing up.

Professional

Roger Gunn

Roger is the Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, overseeing the newest lawyers in his department, including Kate.

Career

Kate is an Assistant US Attorney.

She holds a BA in political science (with highest distinction) and a JD from University of Virginia, where she graduated with the highest GPA in her law school class. Before joining the US Attorney's office, she clerked for the Honorable Bradford S. Whittum of the US District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

As a third-year law student, Kate was selected to join the US Department of Justice through its Attorney General's Honors Program. She worked in the Criminal Division where she prosecuted cases involving organized crime, cybercrime, fraud and public integrity. She also completed an externship in the United States Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia, assisting AUSAs and conducting legal research and writing.

Kate was a Dillard scholar. She won the Carl M. Franklin Prize, the Trial Advocacy Award and was a National Moot Court Champion.

She has gained admission to the bar in Virginia and New York.

Notes and Trivia

• She was a swimmer in high school and before every meet, her father took her to Frimple's Diner.
• She doesn't celebrate people going to jail.
• She hasn't slept more than four hours since elementary school and always thought her teachers were lazy.
• Her e-mail address is kate.littlejohn@usdojsdny.
• Her phone number is (212) 555-0140.
• She built a LEGO model of the Capitol.
• She hated middle school.
• She was a competitive swimmer in school, but wasn't good at it.
• She took a film class at UVA to fill a distribution requirement.
• She liked shooting the gun at the range.
• She doesn't like cats.
• She alphabetizes her soup.
• She thinks cities that double as people's first names are the worst.

Gallery

A more complete gallery with pictures of Kate Littlejohn can be found here.

Notable Episodes

These episodes are Kate-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life:

• 18 Miles Outside of Roanoke
• Everybody's a Superhero

Memorable Quotes

Kate: I don't celebrate people going to jail.

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Kate: His name was Richard Prince. You asked me why I wanted to do this? Richard Prince. He sat behind me in Ms. Stiller's history class. He talked a lot, he cheated. At the end of the first semester, he had the highest grade in the class because he cheated. I liked school. Richard didn't like school. Maybe he didn't need it. I don't know, I don't care. I needed it. I looked forward to Mondays, school. The weekends, when I was at home? We had two field trips every year in my middle school. The big one in seventh grade was across the state to the U.S. Capitol. I had been looking forward to the Capitol trip since I was five years old. I had memorized every Speaker of the House since Frederick Muhlenberg. I knew that the prize for designing the Capitol building was 500 dollars. I knew that the Dome was made of 8,909,200 pounds of cast iron. I knew this and I wrote all these things down in a little notebook. And I pasted pictures into the notebook so I could bring it with me when we went on our trip and make sure I saw everything I had ever read about. I was more excited about this trip than I have ever been about anything in my life. We were 18 miles outside of Roanoke when Richard Prince pulled out his phone on the bus. There was one strict rule on this trip: no electronic devices. None. But Richard Prince had brought his phone. Ms. Stiller told him to put it away. He refused. His friends started to defend him. It got loud. I sat in the back of the bus with my hands over my ears looking through my notebook, staring at pictures of the Dome, the Crypt, the Old Senate Chamber. But it just got louder and louder, more out of control. And then I felt the wheels of the bus turn. I didn't look up but I felt it. We were going home. I was looking forward to that Capitol trip for six years. Six years and I did not get to go because Richard Prince decided the rules didn't apply to him. 49 kids didn't get to go because of one person. Is this what I wanted to be when I was growing up? Yes. Injustice isn't only felt by the loudest person complaining about it.