Brian Benczkowski | |
---|---|
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division | |
In office July 16, 2018 –July 3, 2020 | |
President | Donald Trump |
Preceded by | Leslie R. Caldwell |
Succeeded by | Kenneth Polite |
Personal details | |
Born | Brian Allen Benczkowski October 5,1969 Fairfax,Virginia,U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Education | University of Virginia (BA) Washington University (JD) |
Brian Allen Benczkowski [1] (born October 5,1969) is an American lawyer who served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. Prior to assuming that role,he was a partner at Kirkland &Ellis. [2]
Benczkowski received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 1991. He attended the Washington University School of Law,where he was an associate editor of the Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law. He received his Juris Doctor in 1994. [3]
Early in his career,Benczkowski served on the staff of former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and U.S. Representative Jim Sensenbrenner. [4] His previous roles include serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs,where he managed the Department of Justice's relationship with Congress. [4] Later,he became Chief of Staff for the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of the Attorney General. In those positions,he was awarded the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2003,and the John Marshall Award for Excellence in Preparing and Handling Legislation in 2008. He was also the Republican Staff Director for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary,where he advised Republican members of the committee on legislative,oversight,and nomination issues. [5]
In 2010,Benczkowski joined the law firm of Kirkland &Ellis,where his practice focused on litigation and white collar criminal defense,including government and internal investigations. [5] Benczkowski's clients there included Alfa Bank,the largest private commercial bank in Russia, [6] as well as BP America,Volkswagen,Charter Communications,Blue Cross Blue Shield,and other corporate entities. [7]
Benczkowski was a member of President Donald Trump's 2016 transition team,helping to manage the Justice Department transition. [8]
In June 2017,President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Benczkowski to become Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division. [2] [9] According to The Washington Post,"Benczkowski is a well-regarded lawyer,especially in conservative circles." [8] Politico called him the "GOP's go-to guy for hearings." [4] At the time of his confirmation in July 2018,Benczkowski had no prosecutorial experience. [10]
At his confirmation hearing,Benczkowski refused to recuse himself from dealing with the Mueller investigation,even though he supervised an internal investigation of a bank owned by two Russian oligarchs. [11] He did agree to recuse himself from all matters related to the bank. [12] While in private practice,Benczkowski oversaw an investigation by the cybersecurity firm Stroz Friedberg related to allegations that there was a "secret communications channel" between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank. [11] During Benczkowski's confirmation hearing he was emphatic that Stroz Friedberg,like Mandiant,had rejected the possibility of complicity,and the investigation's report found that "there was no communications link between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank." [11] Stroz Friedberg gave the same explanation for why it,along with Mandiant,was "unable to verify" older data in its investigation:it could not inspect the bank's Domain Name System (DNS) logs from 2016 and before because the bank retained such records at the time for only twenty-four hours. [11] The FBI concluded that the data moving between the companies did not amount to clandestine communications. [13]
While heading the Criminal Division,Benczkowski became known for his efforts to use data analytics to combat the opioid epidemic and fraud against government programs enacted to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,as well as his handling of a whistleblower complaint about President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. [13] He also managed the Fraud,and Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Sections,the largest team of white collar prosecutors in the country. [14] He was responsible for enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,an antibribery law, [15] and helped negotiate several FCPA settlements against multinational corporations,including the resolution with Ericsson AB that resulted in the telecommunications-equipment maker paying more than $1 billion in fines. [16]
During his tenure,Benczkowski also announced several policy shifts related to how the Department of Justice prosecutes corporations. One policy,which became known as the Benczkowski Memo,set forth the Criminal Division's practices for selecting monitors—third parties who serve in watchdog roles overseeing a company's compliance with the terms of federal criminal settlements. [14] He also was responsible for the division's Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Program Guidance,the Department's Inability to Pay Guidance,revisions to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP),and the FCPA Unit's publication of declination letters online. [17] Benczkowski took the view that these policy changes promote greater transparency in how prosecutors apply standards and criteria to cases,which will make investigations more efficient and outcomes fairer and more consistent. [18]
While heading the Criminal Division,Benczkowski and senior career lawyers from the division's Fraud Section met with Rudy Giuliani to discuss a bribery case in which he and other attorneys were representing a Venezuelan energy executive. [19] This meeting took place before the United States Attorney's office in Manhattan,in an unrelated case,publicly charged two Giuliani associates,Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman,with breaking campaign finance laws and trying to unlawfully influence politicians. In an unusual statement,Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr told The New York Times,"When Mr. Benczkowski and fraud section lawyers met with Mr. Giuliani,they were not aware of any investigation of Mr. Giuliani's associates in the Southern District of New York and would not have met with him had they known." [20]
On June 10,2020,Benczkowski announced he would resign on July 3. [21] On September 1,2020,Kirkland and Ellis announced that Benczkowski had returned to the firm as a partner in its Washington,D.C. office. [22]
Alice Stevens Fisher is an American lawyer and partner at the Washington,D.C. office of Latham &Watkins LLP. Fisher served as Deputy United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division from 2001 to 2003 and as an Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice Criminal Division for three years,from 2005 to May 23,2008.
William Pelham Barr is an American attorney who served as United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the administration of President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2020.
Lanny Arthur Breuer is an American criminal defense lawyer who currently serves as vice chair of Covington &Burling LLP. From 2009 to 2013,he served as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Barack Obama. From 1997 to 1999,he served as Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Emmet Gael Sullivan is an American attorney and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Kevin Mitchel Downing is an American lawyer. He has previously worked for the United States Department of Justice Tax Division and as a partner for the law firm of Miller &Chevalier.
Michael Evan Horowitz is an American attorney and government official. He is the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice.
Jeffrey Adam Rosen is an American lawyer who served as acting United States attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021 and as United States deputy attorney general from 2019 to 2020. Before joining the Department of Justice,he was a senior partner at the law firm Kirkland &Ellis and was the United States deputy secretary of transportation.
Jeffrey Bossert Clark is an American lawyer who was Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division from 2018 to 2021. In September 2020,he was also appointed acting head of the Civil Division. In 2020 and 2021,Clark allegedly helped then-president Donald Trump attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Clark's actions in that endeavor were reviewed by the District of Columbia Bar –the entity authorized by law to pursue attorney discipline and disbarment in the District of Columbia –which recommended discipline to the DC Court of Appeals in July 2022,and in August 2024 its Board on Professional Responsibility recommended a two year suspension of his law license. He was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal prosecution of Donald Trump over attempts to overturn the 2020 election. On August 14,2023,he was indicted along with 18 other people in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia.
John Charles Demers is an Italian-born American lawyer who served as United States Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division (NSD) from 2018 to 2021. Following the resignation of Jeffrey A. Rosen,Demers also served as acting United States Attorney General for a few hours on January 20,2021 until President Joe Biden signed an executive order naming Monty Wilkinson as acting United States Attorney General later that day.
Greg Donald Andres is an American attorney,who most notably served as an Assistant Special Counsel for Russian interference in 2016 United States elections under Robert Mueller. He rejoined the law firm of Davis Polk &Wardwell in June 2019.
Geoffrey Steven Berman is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2018 to 2020. He is the Global Chair of the litigation department at the law firm Fried,Frank,Harris,Shriver &Jacobson.
The two criminal trials of Paul Manafort were the first cases brought to trial by the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort served as campaign chair for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign from June 20 to August 19,2016. In July 2017,the FBI conducted a raid of Manafort's home,authorized by search warrant under charges of interference in the 2016 election. Manafort and his business assistant Rick Gates were both indicted and arrested in October 2017 for charges of conspiracy against the United States,making false statements,money laundering,and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine. Gates entered a plea bargain in February 2018.
The 2017–2019 Special Counsel investigation involved multiple legal teams,specifically the attorneys,supervised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller,taking part in the investigation;the team representing President Trump in his personal capacity;and the team representing the White House as an institution separate from the President.
This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections,both before and after July 2016,until November 8,2016,the transition,the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,and followed by the second half of 2019,2020,and 2021.
This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections,both before and after July 2016,until November 8,2016,election day,the transition,the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,and the first and second halves of 2019.
Michael Rafi Sherwin is an attorney who served as the acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 2020 to 2021. He was appointed by Attorney General William Barr during the Trump administration. He is partner at the law firm Kobre &Kim where he handles international government investigations.
The United States Department of Justice under the Trump administration acquired by a February 2018 subpoena the Apple iCloud metadata of two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee,several others associated with the committee,and some of their family members. The subpoena covered 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses since the inception of the accounts. Seizing communications information of members of Congress is extraordinarily rare. The department also subpoenaed and obtained 2017 and 2018 phone log and email metadata from news reporters for CNN,The Washington Post and The New York Times. Apple also received and complied with February 2018 subpoenas for the iCloud accounts of White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife. Microsoft received a subpoena relating to a personal email account of a congressional staff member in 2017.
The United States Justice Department investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election began in early 2021 with investigations and prosecutions of hundreds of individuals who participated in the January 6,2021 attack on the United States Capitol. By early 2022,the investigation had expanded to examine Donald Trump's inner circle,with the Justice Department impaneling several federal grand juries to investigate the attempts to overturn the election. Later in 2022,a special counsel was appointed. On August 1,2023,Trump was indicted. The indictment also describes six alleged co-conspirators.
An ongoing special counsel investigation was opened by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18,2022,to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith,a longtime federal prosecutor,to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records,including classified documents.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)}