Larry Thompson had a habit as Atlanta’s U.S. attorney in the 1980s: When the government lost a case, he’d lead the press conference, but when the feds won, he put the assistant prosecutors in the spotlight.

He did something of the same in September, declining to be interviewed when he and a team of lawyers completed three years of overseeing Volkswagen’s compliance with a huge settlement of charges over cars designed to evade environmental emissions tests. But this week Thompson spoke to the Daily Report from his home on Sea Island, where he and his wife spend time when they are not in Atlanta.