Andrew A. Weissmann (born March 17, 1958) is an American attorney. He was an
Assistant United States Attorney
An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...
from 1991 to 2002, where he prosecuted high-profile organized crime cases.
In 2002, President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
appointed Weissman to be the deputy director and then director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's Enron Task Force.
Weissman also served as the
General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2011 to 2013.
Starting in 2015, he became the chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. In June 2017, he was appointed to a management role on the
2017 special counsel team headed by
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.
A graduate of Princeton University and New York ...
. 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.
Education
Weissmann has a bachelor's degree from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
(1980). Following a
Fulbright scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
to the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
, he attended and graduated from
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
(1984). He then clerked for Judge
Eugene Nickerson
Eugene Hoffman Nickerson (August 2, 1918 – January 1, 2002) was the Democratic county executive of Nassau County, New York, from 1962 until 1970. Nickerson was the only Democrat to be elected county executive in Nassau County until 2001. Late ...
in the
.
Career
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
Genovese is an Italian surname meaning, properly, someone from Genoa. Its Italian plural form '' Genovesi'' has also developed into a surname.
People
* Alfred Genovese (1931–2011), American oboist
* Alfredo Genovese (born 1964), Argentine ar ...
,
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
and
Gambino crime families.
[Darren Samuelsohn]
Everything we know about the Mueller probe so far
''Politico'', June 6, 2017. He led the prosecution team in the
Vincent Gigante
Vincent Louis Gigante (; March 28, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fough ...
case, in which Gigante was convicted.
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
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then on ...
.
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
Andrew Stuart "Andy" Fastow (born December 22, 1961) is a convicted felon and former financier who was the chief financial officer of Enron Corporation, an energy trading company based in Houston, Texas, until he was fired shortly before the com ...
,
Kenneth Lay
Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...
, and
Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventual ...
. In a follow-up case in U.S. District Court, Weissmann also was successful, controversially, at arguing that auditing firm
Arthur Andersen LLP
Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporati ...
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.
That ruling was later unanimously overturned by the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in ''
Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States
''Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States'', 544 U.S. 696 (2005), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously overturned accounting firm Arthur Andersen's conviction of obstruction of justice in the fraudulent activities and ...
'', in which the court held that "the jury instructions failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing." However, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the company. Some 7,000 jobs were lost.
In 2005, he worked as special counsel again with Mueller, before heading into private practice at
Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block is an American law firm with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm is active in corporate litigation, business transactions, the public sector, and other legal fields. ...
in New York after the special counsel completed its mandate. In 2011, he returned to the FBI, serving as General Counsel under Mueller. From 2015 to 2017, he headed the criminal fraud section at the Department of Justice. Weissmann has taught at
NYU School of Law
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...
,
Fordham Law School
Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...
, and
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty.
Brookly ...
.
On June 19, 2017, Weissmann joined Special Counsel Mueller's team to investigate
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...
. He was called "the architect of the case against former Trump campaign chairman
Paul Manafort
Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served ...
". 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. Later that year, he also joined
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
as a legal analyst.
In 2020, Weissmann returned to
Jenner & Block
Jenner & Block is an American law firm with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm is active in corporate litigation, business transactions, the public sector, and other legal fields. ...
as co-chair of its investigations, compliance and defense practice.
On September 29, 2020, Random House released a book by Weissmann titled ''
Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation''. The book detailed several key aspects of the investigation, including the revelation that
Rick Gates admitted to having given critical 2016 political polling data on battleground states on at least two occasions to
Konstantin Kilimnik
uk, Костянтин Килимник
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Soviet Union
, death_date =
, death_place =
, citizenship = UkraineRussiaSoviet Union
, oc ...
, who according to the F.B.I. had strong ties to the Russian intelligence community. A critical point that supported the charge of obstruction described in Weissman's book was that President Trump had reportedly discussed with his White House Counsel,
Don McGahn
Donald Francis McGahn II (; born June 16, 1968) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Donald Trump, from the day of Trump's inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. Previously, McGahn serv ...
, the possibility of firing Mueller from the investigation, then attempted a coverup of this discussion by requesting a statement be made from both McGahn and press secretary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders (born August 13, 1982) is an American former political spokesperson and the governor-elect of Arkansas. She was the 31st White House press secretary, serving under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019. She ...
that denied Trump had ever spoken to McGahn about firing Mueller.
Controversy
Weissmann has been described as a "pitbull" by the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', and critics have said he deployed "hard-nosed tactics and a 'win-at-all-costs' mentality" in the Enron prosecution.
Top Mueller prosecutor stepping down in latest clue Russia inquiry may be ending
npr.org. Accessed August 29, 2022.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissmann, Andrew
1958 births
Living people
Princeton University alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
21st-century American lawyers
Members of the 2017 Special Counsel investigation team
People associated with Jenner & Block
Brooklyn Law School faculty
Jewish American attorneys