Brett Tolman | |
---|---|
United States Attorney for the District of Utah | |
In office July 2006 –December 2009 | |
President | George W. Bush Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Paul Warner [1] |
Succeeded by | David Barlow [2] |
Personal details | |
Education | Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School |
Brett L. Tolman (born June 10,1970) is a former United States Attorney for the District of Utah from July 2006 to December 2009. Before becoming U.S. Attorney,Tolman worked as counsel in the Senate Judiciary Committee for committee chairs Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and then Arlen Specter (R-PA) during the 109th United States Congress. Tolman's most noteworthy work in the Senate is his role in the passage of the 2005 Patriot Act reauthorization. He was instrumental in the revisions to the appointment process of interim U.S. Attorneys and is a major (if not well-known) figure in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Tolman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University in 1994,and his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1998. Tolman clerked for U.S. District Chief Judge Dee Benson of the United States District Court for the District of Utah from 1998 to 2000. [3] Tolman then served four years as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Utah under U.S. Attorney Paul Warner. In 2003,he began work on the staff of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch,(R-UT),chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Later,Tolman staffed for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) after Specter became judiciary chairman. While working for Senators Hatch and Specter,Tolman was Counsel for Crime and Terrorism,which included work on drafting and negotiating passage of the USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization. [4]
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy |
During Senate hearings on February 6, 2007, Senator Specter claimed that Tolman, on behalf of the United States Department of Justice, added a clause to the bill that eliminated the term limits for interim appointments of U.S. Attorneys by the Attorney General. The change in effect allowed the President to bypass the Senatorial approval process for those interim U.S. Attorneys appointed by the Attorney General. [5] This change in the law is at the center of the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy. [6] [7]
On March 20, 2007, the Senate voted 94–2 to re-instate the 120-day term limit on interim attorneys appointed by the Attorney General. [8] On March 26, the U.S. House overturned it as well, by a vote of 329–78. [9] The bill was sent to President Bush for his signature on June 4, 2007. [10]
On January 25, 2006, U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah, Paul Warner, announced he would step down to become the newly created fourth U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Utah. [11] [12] A struggle over who would succeed him in office ensued, the two candidates being Tolman and Kyle Sampson, then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's chief of staff at the Department of Justice. Both Tolman and Sampson are Utah natives who had graduated from Brigham Young University. While Gonzales and the White House favored Sampson, Tolman received support from Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate Judiciary Committee member Mike DeWine (R-OH). [13] Senator Hatch made a personal appeal to Attorney General Gonzales to drop his nomination of Kyle Sampson. [6] On June 9, 2006, President Bush nominated Tolman to the Utah post, and on July 21, 2006, the senate confirmed Tolman by voice vote. [3]
In December 2009, Tolman resigned and joined the Salt Lake City law firm Ray Quinney & Nebeker. Until a replacement could be named by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate, Carlie Christensen, a career attorney with the office, has been named as Acting U.S. Attorney. In 2019, Tolman resigned from Ray Quinney Nebeker to start his own firm, The Tolman Group. Brett Tolman founded The Tolman Group to focus on public policy and government reform. He has been featured on Fox News discussing current events. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
On January 17, 2021, the New York Times published an article reporting that Tolman has "collect[ed] tens of thousands of dollars, and possibly more, in recent weeks to lobby the White House for clemency for the son of a former Arkansas senator; the founder of the notorious online drug marketplace Silk Road; and a Manhattan socialite who pleaded guilty in a fraud scheme". [20]
Orrin Grant Hatch was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history, overtaking Ted Stevens, until Chuck Grassley surpassed him in 2023.
Arlen Specter was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican from 1965 until 2009, when he switched back to the Democratic Party. First elected in 1980, he was the longest-serving senator from Pennsylvania, having represented the state for 30 years.
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On December 7, 2006, the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice ordered the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States attorneys. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White House were using the U.S. attorney positions for political advantage. Allegations were that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters. The U.S. attorneys were replaced with interim appointees, under provisions in the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
D. Kyle Sampson was the chief of staff and counselor of United States attorney general Alberto Gonzales. He resigned on March 12, 2007, amid the controversy surrounding the firing of eight United States attorneys in 2006 and was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in July 2010. In October 2007, Sampson joined the law firm of Hunton & Williams LLP as a partner in the firm's food and drug practice, where his practice focuses on FDA regulatory and enforcement matters.
John Timothy Griffin is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 57th attorney general of Arkansas. He previously served as the 20th lieutenant governor of Arkansas, from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas between 2006 and 2007 and U.S. Representative for Arkansas's 2nd congressional district from 2011 to 2015. Griffin defeated Democrat John Burkhalter for lieutenant governor in 2014 and served under Governor Asa Hutchinson. In summer 2020, Griffin announced his candidacy for the 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial election, but withdrew from the race in February 2021 to run for Arkansas Attorney General instead.
Jeffrey A. Taylor is the former interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.
This article about dismissed U.S. attorneys summarizes the circumstances surrounding a number of U.S. attorneys dismissed from office in the United States Department of Justice in 2006. Eight were dismissed In December 2006, and others may have been forced out of office under similar circumstances in 2005 and 2006. The manner of the firings, the congressional response to them, and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007. As of May 2007 a clear explanation of why the attorneys were dismissed had not been put forward by the Bush administration or the Department of Justice leadership. There are in total 93 U.S. attorneys that serve 94 Federal district courts.
A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
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