Alexander (“Ali”) Silvert was raised in NYC and Vermont, graduated from UCLA and Boston College Law School. He came to Honolulu in 1989 to work at the Hawaii Federal Public Defenders Office. He served as the First Assistant FPD from 1992 to his retirement in October, 2020. Mr. Silvert handled numerous high publicity cases, including representing two defendants in potential federal death penalty cases. In 2000 he was named “Federal Defender of the Year” by the National Association of Federal Defenders. In July of 2013, Mr. Silvert began his representation of Gerard Puana, charged with destruction of a mailbox, a charge Mr. Silvert had never seen brought before in Hawai‘i federal court. He is now best known for his representation of Gerard Puana and its aftermath. He is the author of The Mailbox Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Greatest Corruption Case in Hawai‘i History