The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice,and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
The Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives (BATFE),commonly referred to as the ATF,is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use,manufacture,and possession of firearms and explosives;acts of arson and bombings;and illegal trafficking and tax evasion of alcohol and tobacco products. The ATF also regulates via licensing the sale,possession,and transportation of firearms,ammunition,and explosives in interstate commerce. Many of the ATF's activities are carried out in conjunction with task forces made up of state and local law enforcement officers,such as Project Safe Neighborhoods. The ATF operates a unique fire research laboratory in Beltsville,Maryland,where full-scale mock-ups of criminal arson can be reconstructed. The ATF had 5,285 employees and an annual budget of almost $1.5 billion in 2021. The ATF has received criticism over the Ruby Ridge controversy,the Waco siege controversy and others.
Alberto R. Gonzales is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States Attorney General from 2005 to 2007 and is the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive government to date. He previously served as Secretary of State of Texas,as a Texas Supreme Court Justice,and as White House Counsel,becoming the first Hispanic to hold that office.
Paul Joseph McNulty is an American attorney and university administrator who is currently the ninth president of Grove City College. He served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from March 17,2006,to July 26,2007. Prior to that,he was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Rachel Kunjummen Paulose is an American attorney. She was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a United States Attorney. She was the youngest person and the first woman to lead the District of Minnesota.
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.
Paul K. Charlton is a former United States Attorney and current partner at the law firm of Dentons US LLP in the firm's Phoenix,Arizona office. Charlton concentrates his practice on high-profile and complex litigation,internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense. Charlton also represents a number of Arizona Native American governments,including Ak-Chin,Salt River Pima-Maricopa,Haulapai,the Navajo Nation,and Tohono O'odham.
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.
Monica Marie Goodling is a former United States government lawyer and Republican political appointee in the George W. Bush administration who is best known for her role in the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy in 2006. She was the principal deputy director of public affairs for the United States Department of Justice,serving under Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. A Department of Justice investigation concluded that she had violated the law,but she was not prosecuted because she had been granted immunity in exchange for her testimony. The Virginia State Bar publicly reprimanded Goodling in May 2011 for having "improperly utilized political affiliation and other political considerations when making hiring decisions for career positions."
Michael J. Elston is a United States lawyer who serves as Acting Secretary of the Board of Governors for the United States Postal Service (USPS),in Washington,D.C. Elston has served as the Associate General Counsel and Chief Ethics &Compliance Officer for the USPS since 2014. From November 2005 to June 2007,he was a political appointee in the administration of President George W. Bush,serving as the Chief of Staff &Counselor,Office of the Deputy Attorney General,United States Department of Justice,before resigning in the wake of the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. He was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1999 by Attorney General Janet Reno.
A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Patrick F. Philbin is an American lawyer who served as Deputy Counsel to the President and Deputy Assistant to the President in the Office of White House Counsel in the Donald J. Trump administration. He previously served in the Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration.
The United States House Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary,have oversight authority over Department of Justice (DOJ). In 2007 it conducted public and closed-door oversight and investigative hearings on the DOJ's interactions with the White House and staff members of the Executive Office of the President. A routine oversight hearing on January 18,2007 by the Senate committee was the first public congressional occasion that Attorney General Gonzales responded to questions about dismissed United States Attorneys (USAs). Both committees invited or subpoenaed past and present Department of Justice officers and staff to appear and testify during 2007,and both committees requested or subpoenaed documents,and made the documents that were produced publicly available.
George James Terwilliger III is an American lawyer and public official. He is a partner in the Washington,D.C. office of McGuireWoods LLP where he is head of the firm's Crisis Response practice and co-head of its white collar team. He is a former United States Deputy Attorney General and acting United States Attorney General. Terwilliger,of Vermont,was nominated on February 14,1992,by President George H. W. Bush to be Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He succeeded William Pelham Barr. As Deputy Attorney General,Terwilliger became the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the department,serving in that position from 1991 through 1993. He was appointed to the position by President George H.W. Bush after serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont,appointed by President Reagan.
Project Gunrunner is a project of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico,in an attempt to deprive the Mexican drug cartels of weapons.
Kenneth Leonard Wainstein is an American lawyer. He served as the first Assistant Attorney General for National Security,and later as the Homeland Security Advisor to United States President George W. Bush. In 2022 under the Biden Administration,he was appointed Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis.
Gunwalking,or "letting guns walk",was a tactic used by the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office and the Arizona Field Office of the United States Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives (ATF),which ran a series of sting operations between 2006 and 2011 in the Tucson and Phoenix area where the ATF "purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers,hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them". These operations were done under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner,a project intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico by interdicting straw purchasers and gun traffickers within the United States. The Jacob Chambers Case began in October 2009 and eventually became known in February 2010 as Operation Fast and Furious after agents discovered Chambers and the other suspects under investigation belonged to a car club.
Byron Todd Jones is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and is chief disciplinary officer of the National Football League (NFL). He twice served as United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota.
Jonathan Fahey is an American attorney,politician,academic,and law enforcement official who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and later the senior official performing the duties of the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from December 31,2020,to January 13,2021.
