John Gleeson (born July 14, 1953) is an American attorney and judge who served as a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...

. He is a member of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgate ...

Early life and education

Gleeson was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in 1975, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

in 1980.

Legal career

Gleeson worked as a law clerk for Boyce Martin on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

from 1980 to 1981. He was in private practice of law at the firm of

Cravath, Swaine & Moore Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (known as Cravath) is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City, and an additional office in London. The firm is known for its complex and high profile litigation and mergers & acquisiti ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from 1981 to 1985. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the

Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, Su ...

from 1985 to 1994 where he was noted for his prosecution of Mafia cases, most notably that of Gambino crime boss John Gotti which resulted in Gotti's conviction.

Federal judicial service

Gleeson was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

on July 22, 1994, to a seat vacated by Jack B. Weinstein. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on September 28, 1994, and received his commission the next day. He served until his resignation on March 9, 2016. As a district judge, Gleeson was a critic of harsh

mandatory sentencing Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...

. Gleeson's ruling against the FBI in a landmark racial profiling case was reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in ''

Ashcroft v. Iqbal ''Ashcroft v. Iqbal'', 556 U.S. 662 (2009), was a United States Supreme Court case which held that plaintiffs must present a "plausible" cause of action. Alongside ''Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly'' (and together known as Twiqbal), Iqbal raised th ...

'' (2009). Judge Gleeson oversaw the prosecution of

Jordan Belfort Jordan Ross Belfort (; born July 9, 1962) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, author, former stockbroker, and financial criminal. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running ...

, famous as the "Wolf of Wall Street". In 2012, he approved a

deferred prosecution A deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), which is very similar to a non-prosecution agreement (NPA), is a voluntary alternative to adjudication in which a prosecutor agrees to grant amnesty in exchange for the defendant agreeing to fulfill certain r ...

agreement with HSBC which was widely criticized as being too lenient, but he continued to monitor the agreement for years, in 2016 ordering reports by the bank's independent monitor to be publicly disclosed in the interest of transparency. In his last days on the bench Judge Gleeson, instead of issuing a writ of '' audita querela'', created a new "federal certificate of rehabilitation" to help convicts find jobs.

Post judicial career

On January 4, 2016, it was announced that Gleeson planned to resign from the bench and return to private practice on March 9, 2016. He joined white shoe firm

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...

to practice

white-collar crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a ...

defense. On May 11, 2020, Gleeson co-authored an op-ed concerning the Department of Justice's request to drop charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; the op-ed pointed out that dismissal of charges was not automatic but would only be granted by leave of the court. Two days later, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan appointed Gleeson to present arguments against the DOJ’s request to withdraw the case against Flynn and to determine if perjury charges should be brought against Flynn. In the role, Gleeson served as a " friend of the court."

Nomination to United States Sentencing Commission

On May 11, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Gleeson to serve as a member of the

. On May 12, 2022, his nomination was sent to the Senate. He has been nominated to fill the position left vacant by

Rachel Barkow Rachel Elise Barkow (née Selinfreund; born 1971) is an American professor of law at the New York University School of Law. She is also faculty director of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law. Her scholarship focuses on administrat ...

, whose term expired. On June 8, 2022, a hearing on his nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

. On July 21, 2022, his nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote, with 6 Republican senators voted “no” on record. On August 4, 2022, the

confirmed his nomination by a voice vote.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gleeson, John 1953 births Living people 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Assistant United States Attorneys Cravath, Swaine & Moore people Georgetown University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Members of the United States Sentencing Commission People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton People from the Bronx United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Virginia School of Law alumni