John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer,lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th Governor of Missouri,he later founded the Ashcroft Group,a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.
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.
King &Spalding LLP is an American international corporate law firm that is headquartered in Atlanta,Georgia,with offices located in North America,Europe,the Middle East,and Asia. It has over 1,200 lawyers in 23 offices globally. It is Am Law 100,Global 30,and white-shoe firm.
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.
Timothy Elliott Flanigan is an American lawyer and politician. On May 24,2005,President George W. Bush nominated him as Deputy Attorney General of the United States,the second highest position in the Department of Justice. On October 7,2005,his name was withdrawn from consideration. He was replaced by Paul McNulty.
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.
David S. Kris is an American lawyer. From 2009 to 2011,he served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice. He also served as the associate deputy attorney general for national security issues at the Department of Justice from 2000 to 2003.
Peter Douglas Keisler is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy. He is a partner at the firm of Sidley Austin in Washington,D.C.,and used to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Upon the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,until November 9,2007,he was also the Acting Attorney General of the United States.
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.
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."
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 President's Surveillance Program (PSP) is a collection of secret intelligence activities authorized by the President of the United States George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks in 2001 as part of the War on Terrorism. Information collected under this program was protected within a Sensitive Compartmented Information security compartment codenamed STELLARWIND.
Derek Anthony West is an American attorney and former government official,and the current Senior Vice President and chief legal officer of Uber. Before Uber,West was Associate Attorney General of the United States and general counsel of PepsiCo. West previously served as the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division,the largest litigating division in the Department of Justice.
Rachel Lee Brand is an American lawyer,academic,and former government official. She served as the United States Associate Attorney General from May 22,2017,until February 20,2018,when she resigned to take a job as head of global corporate governance at Walmart. Brand was the first woman to serve as Associate Attorney General. She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Prior to becoming Associate Attorney General,Brand was an associate professor at Antonin Scalia Law School.
Steven Andrew Engel is an American lawyer. He served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Donald Trump administration. Engel,who previously worked in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel,was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31,2017,and confirmed on November 7,2017. On January 20,2021,he was succeeded by Christopher H. Schroeder who served under the Biden Administration.
Jeffrey Adam Rosen is an American lawyer who served as the acting United States attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021 and as the 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. 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.
McGregor William "Greg" Scott is an American lawyer and partner at the King &Spalding law firm. He served as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of California from 2017 to 2021. He was sworn in as a court-appointed U.S. attorney on December 29,2017,after previously serving in the position from 2003 to 2009 during the George W. Bush Administration. Prior to assuming his current role,Scott was a partner in the Sacramento office of Orrick,Herrington &Sutcliffe,where his practice focused on white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations. In 2008,he retired from the United States Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years of service.
