Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben announced in June that he will be leaving the Department of Justice where he has served for 31 years in the Office of the Solicitor General. Michael gave the Supreme Court Update at NAFUSA’s 2012 annual conference in Atlanta and was honored in 2016 in San Diego over his service upon having argued his 100th case before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the United States.
Then NAFUSA President Greg Vega presenting Michael Dreeben with a San Diego Padres jersey in 2016 in honor of Michel’s 100 cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court
On July 30, 2019, Solicitor General Noel Francisco posted a Tribute to Michael Dreeben (Noel Francisco, Tribute to Michael Dreeben, SCOTUSblog) in which he said, “Michael Dreeben knows more about criminal law than anyone else on Earth. But it’s not only his knowledge that sets him apart. It’s also his talent as an advocate, and his tireless devotion to his craft.”
Most recently, Michael was a leading prosecutor on Bob Mueller’s special counsel team.
The day after the NAFUSA Liaison Committee met with the Attorney General, he opened the U.S. Attorney’s Conference at Main Justice. He outlined his priorities, which include violent crime, the drug problem, the immigration crisis on the Southern Border, national security, and cyber threat.
In the AG’s Conference Room with (from left) Paul Coggins, Karen Hewitt, Rich Rossman, AG Bill Barr, Donna Bucella, Catherine Hanaway, Bob Balfe and Terry Flynn
Since 2010, NAFUSA has sent a committee at least once a year to meet at Main Justice with the Attorney General and the Attorney General’s Advisory Council (AGAC). On June 25, 2019, NAFUSA President Terry Flynn led this year’s Liaison Committee, composed of Paul Coggins, Karen Hewitt, Bob Balfe, Donna Bucella, Catherine Hanaway and Rich Rossman.
Here is how Terry described the day:
This year’s visit to Washington, DC was action packed! We met with Attorney General Barr, AGAC Chairwoman Jessie Liu, and all the members of the AGAC. It was a great opportunity for us to discuss the ongoing activities and goals of NAFUSA while hearing from Department leaders on the work and issues facing the Department of Justice. As an added bonus to our visit to Main Justice, the full USA community was in town for their annual conference. So we were even able to meet with some other former colleagues/Department leaders like US Attorney Gretchen Shappert, who is now the US Attorney for the Virgin Islands, and previously served as the US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
We then took a walk and met with our former colleagues/NAFUSA members at the Capitol. Congressman John Ratcliffe gave us a grand tour of the Capitol which included a visit to the Speaker’s Balcony. John, a lifetime NAFUSA member, is currently serving on the House’s Justice, Intelligence, Homeland Security and Ethics Committees. After spending time with John, we then joined our other NAFUSA colleague and former officer, Senator Doug Jones, for lunch in the Senate Dining Room. Doug is serving on the Senate’s Banking/Housing/Urban Affairs, Health/Education/Labor/Pensions, Armed Services, and Aging Committees. With such important committee assignments, both John and Doug were able to describe for us the many issues currently being faced by them in Congress. We were even able to meet the night before with another of our esteemed colleagues, Congresswoman Susan Brooks. Susan currently serves on the Energy/Commerce, Ethics (past Chairwoman), Bipartisan Caucus on Women’s Issues. As an added bonus to the visit we had a chance meeting with Congressman John Lewis and Senator John Cornyn! Everywhere we went people were kind enough to thank us for our members’ public service as US Attorneys.
It was truly humbling for us to see so many of our colleagues serving in such leadership capacities. Such yearly visits provide us with a great opportunity to highlight NAFUSA’s growing membership while discussing the activities and goals of NAFUSA!
On the Speaker’s Balcony at the Capitol overlooking the Mall with Congressman and NAFUSA Life Member John RadcliffeAt the Capitol near the Senate Dining Room with United States Senator and NAFUSA member Doug Jones
In early March, President Trump nominated Jessie Liu, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, to be the associate attorney general. But this week Liu withdrew from consideration for the No. 3 post at Main Justice and Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement: “Today, I am pleased to announce that I am appointing Jessie Liu as chairwoman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys (AGAC). Jessie Liu, an outstanding attorney with broad experience, is widely-respected, within the Department. She currently leads more than 300 prosecutors at our nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office. Jessie will be an integral part of our leadership at the Department. We will all benefit from her universally-regarded expertise and dedication to public service. I would also like to thank Richard Moore, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, for his outstanding tenure as chair of the AGAC, and his contributions to the management of the Department. He will remain a key advisor on the committee.”
President Trump intends to nominate Jeffrey A. Rosen as Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement:
Jeffrey Rosen is a distinguished lawyer who has served at the highest levels of government and the private sector,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “As an attorney, he has more than 35 years’ experience litigating complex matters in state and federal courts across the country, including as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He supervised more than 400 attorneys while serving as General Counsel at the Department of Transportation and also served as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget. He currently serves as Deputy Secretary of Transportation, where he leads 50,000 employees. His years of outstanding legal and management experience make him an excellent choice to succeed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has served the Department of Justice over many years with dedication and distinction.
A Justice Department official said Monday that Rod Rosenstein planned to step down in mid-March.
The United States Senate today confirmed William P. Barr as attorney general by a vote of 54 to 45. NAFUSA member Senator Doug Jones was one of the three Democrats to support Barr. He was immediately sworn in as the 85th Attorney General during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, where Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. Barr joins John Crittenden (1841 and 1850-1853) as one of the only two people in U.S. history to serve twice as attorney general.
The Department of Justice advised in a release,
Mr. Barr is rejoining the Department of Justice where he previously served as the 77th Attorney General of the United States from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Barr also served as the Deputy Attorney General from 1990 to 1991 and as the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1989 to 1990. While serving at the Department, Mr. Barr helped create programs and strategies to reduce violent crime and was responsible for establishing new enforcement policies in a number of areas including financial institutions, civil rights, and antitrust merger guidelines. Mr. Barr also led the Department’s response to the Savings & Loan crisis; oversaw the investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing; directed the successful response to the Talladega prison uprising and hostage taking; and coordinated counter-terrorism activities during the First Gulf War.
Most recently, Mr. Barr served as Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis. Before his work at Kirkland & Ellis, he served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for GTE Corporation from 1994 until 2000 and as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Verizon from 2000 to 2008.
Mr. Barr served as a law clerk under Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and from 1982 to 1983, served on the White House Domestic Policy Staff under President Ronald Reagan. He received his A.B. in government in 1971 and his M.A. in government and Chinese studies in 1973, both from Columbia University. From 1973 to 1977, Mr. Barr served in the Central Intelligence Agency before receiving his J.D. with highest honors from George Washington University Law School in 1977.
Barr is expected to recommend Jeffrey A. Rosen, a longtime colleague at Kinkland & Ellis, to be the deputy attorney general. Rosen is the current deputy secretary of transportation. He held senior positions at the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Transportation during President George W. Bush’s administration. Rod Rosenstein, the current deputy attorney general is expected to leave within a few days.
NAFUSA members will find interesting the publication of the Oxford University Press book, coauthored by Brett Curry, Professor of Political Science at Georgia Southern University, and Banks Miller, Associate Professor of Political Science & Public Policy at the University of Texas at Dallas, “U.S. Attorneys, Political Control, and Career Ambition.” Here is the link to the book’s page at Oxford UP: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/us-attorneys-political-control-and-career-ambition-9780190928247?cc=us&lang=en&#
The first book-length treatment of USAs in more than 40 years, this study is accessible, and discusses aspects of the history surrounding the USA position while also offering an empirical investigation of specific issue areas spanning the Reagan-Obama presidencies. It incorporates anecdotes involving more than 50 former USAs throughout the book; Professor (and former AUSA) Dan Richman of Columbia Law School has written an endorsement on the book’s cover.
The last scholarly book devoted to U.S. Attorneys was “Counsel for the United States,” by James Eisenstein.
President Trump announced today that he will nominate William P. Barr to return as head of the Justice Department. Barr served as the Attorney General during the first Bush administration from 1991 to 1993. Barr, a graduate of George Washington University Law School, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, then as the deputy attorney general and then attorney general.
President Trump today fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and announced that he had appointed NAFUSA life member Matthew G. Whitaker as the Acting Attorney General. Whitaker has been serving as the chief of staff to Jeff Sessions since October, 2017. Whitaker assumes oversight of the Mueller investigation from DAG Rod Rosenstein. In August 17, 2017, Whitaker wrote an opinion column for CNN where he questioned the scope of the Mueller Russia inquiry. Mueller’s investigation of Trump is going too far (opinion) -CNN
Whitaker served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, 2004-2009 during the George W. Bush administration. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, earning Academic All-American honors in 1992. He was the tight end on the 1990 Big Ten Champion football team and played in the 1991 Rose Bowl game. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law.
Whitaker becomes the fifth former U.S. Attorney in a row to serve as the Attorney General, either as the presidentially-appointed person or in the acting capacity (Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, Jeff Sessions, and Matt Whitaker).
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