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Andrew Weissmann

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Andrew Weissmann
Weissmann in 2024
General Counsel of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
In office
2011–2013
PresidentBarack Obama
DirectorRobert Mueller
Preceded byValerie E. Caproni
Succeeded byJames A. Baker
Personal details
Born (1958-03-17) March 17, 1958 (age 66)[1][2]
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
University of Geneva
Columbia University (JD)
Signature

Andrew A. Weissmann[3] (born March 17, 1958) is an American attorney and professor. He was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1991 to 2002, when he prosecuted high-profile organized crime cases.[4] He served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller's Special Counsel's Office (2017–2019), as Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice (2015–2017) and is currently a professor at NYU Law School.[5]

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Weissmann to be the deputy director and then director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Enron Task Force.[5] Weissman also served as the General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2011 to 2013.[5]

Starting in 2015, he became the chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. In June 2017, he was appointed to a management role on the 2017 special counsel team headed by Robert Mueller. To assume that position, Weissmann took a leave from his Department of Justice post. The special counsel's investigation concluded in 2019 and Weissmann went into the private sector.

Early life and education

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Weissmann grew up in New York City, where he attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.[6] He subsequently attended Princeton University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1980. Following a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Geneva, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School (1984). He then clerked for Judge Eugene Nickerson in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.[7] He is Jewish.[8]

Career

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In 1991, Weissmann worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and would remain in this role until 2002. While at EDNY, Weissmann tried more than 25 cases, some of which involved members of the Genovese, Colombo and Gambino crime families.[9] He led the prosecution team in the Vincent Gigante case, in which Gigante was convicted.[4]

From 2002 to 2005, Weissmann was the deputy director appointed by George W. Bush, prior to his assignment as the director of the task force investigating the Enron scandal.[9] His work resulted in the prosecution of more than 30 people for crimes including perjury, fraud, and obstruction, including three of Enron's top executives, Andrew Fastow, Kenneth Lay, and Jeffrey Skilling. In a follow-up case in U.S. District Court, Weissmann also was successful, controversially, at arguing that auditing firm Arthur Andersen LLP had covered up for Enron. In that case, which resulted in the destruction of Andersen, he convinced the district judge to instruct the jury that they could convict the firm regardless of whether its employees knew they were violating the law.[4] That ruling was later unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court in Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, in which the court held that "the jury instructions failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing."[10][11]

In 2005, he worked as special counsel again with Mueller, before heading into private practice at Jenner & Block in New York after the special counsel completed its mandate. In 2011, he returned to the FBI, serving as General Counsel under Mueller.[12] From 2015 to 2017, he headed the criminal fraud section at the Department of Justice. Weissmann has taught at NYU School of Law, Fordham Law School, and Brooklyn Law School.[7]

On June 19, 2017, Weissmann joined Special Counsel Mueller's team to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[13][14][8] He was called "the architect of the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort". A news report in March 2019 said he would soon leave the Justice Department and become a faculty member at New York University and work on public service projects.[15] In 2020, Weissmann returned to Jenner & Block as co-chair of its investigations, compliance and defense practice.[16]

Weissmann has been described as a "pitbull" by The New York Times, and critics have said he deployed "hard-nosed tactics and a 'win-at-all-costs' mentality" in the Enron prosecution.[15]

Media and publishing career

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In 2019, Weissmann joined MSNBC as a legal analyst.[1] Since March 2023, he has co-hosted the MSNBC podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump (with fellow former prosecutor, Mary McCord), which won the 'Webby Winner' and 'People's Voice Winner' in the Crime & Justice category of the 2024 Webby Awards.[17][18]

His book, entitled Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation, was published in September 2023.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b Vella, Lauren (November 15, 2019). "NBC signs Mueller 'pit bull' prosecutor Andrew Weissman as legal analyst". The Hill.
  2. ^ United States Public Records, 1970–2009 (New York, Texas, 1993–2004)
  3. ^ Columbia Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 5 (June 1984), pg. 1297
  4. ^ a b c Willman, David (February 19, 2018). "Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann has a reputation for hard-charging tactics — and sometimes going too far". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c "Andrew Weissmann Biodata". its.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  6. ^ Thomas, Burger; Defrank |, M. (January 26, 2002). "N.Y. PROSECUTOR TO RUN PROBE". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Press release: Andrew Weissmann Selected as Chief of Criminal Division's Fraud Section". U.S. Department of Justice. January 9, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Solomon, Daniel J. (July 7, 2017). "3 Jewish Prosecutors Join Robert Mueller's Team For Russia Meddling Probe". The Forward.
  9. ^ a b Darren Samuelsohn. Everything we know about the Mueller probe so far. Politico, June 6, 2017.
  10. ^ "Arthur Andersen to cut 7,000 jobs". CBC News. April 8, 2002.
  11. ^ Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005), 544 US 696 (2005).
  12. ^ Tom Schoenberg. Trump-Russia: senior US justice official Andrew Weissmann joining investigation. Sydney Morning Herald, June 1, 2017.
  13. ^ Karen Freifeld. Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes, Reuters. June 19, 2017.
  14. ^ Flegenheimer, Matt (October 31, 2017). "Andrew Weissmann, Mueller's Legal Pit Bull". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Carrie (March 14, 2019). "Top Mueller Prosecutor Stepping Down In Latest Clue Russia Inquiry May Be Ending". Morning Edition – via NPR.
  16. ^ Strom, Roy (April 29, 2020). "Top Mueller Litigator Weissmann to Rejoin Jenner & Block in July". Bloomberg Law.
  17. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (December 27, 2023). "True-Crime Podcasts About Trump Are Everywhere". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  18. ^ "Prosecuting Donald Trump". The Webby Awards. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  19. ^ Weissmann, Andrew (September 29, 2023). Where Law Ends : Inside the Mueller investigation (First ed.). New York: Random House. pp. 112–13, specific discussion of polling data on 197–200, 228–232. ISBN 978-0-593-13857-1. OCLC 1197637045.
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