Nora Riordan Dannehy (born March 13, 1961) is an American attorney. She was appointed Acting

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the

District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeals ...

on April 4, 2008. She is the first woman to hold the office, which was established in 1789.

Legal career

Dannehy received her B.A. from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

in 1983 and her J.D. degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1986. She joined the

United States 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 1991. Prior to her appointment, she had served as Professional Officer for the District of Connecticut. Dannehy prosecuted political corruption in Connecticut and won convictions of former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland and former state Treasurer Paul Silvester. On September 29, 2008, Dannehy was appointed by

United States Attorney General 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 p ...

Michael B. Mukasey Michael Bernard Mukasey (; born July 28, 1941) is an American attorney and former federal judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009. Born in New York City in 1941, Mukasey attended Ramaz School, gradua ...

to continue an investigation into the George W. Bush administration's dismissals of nine federal prosecutors in 2006. Her role was to determine if anyone should be prosecuted following the investigation by the

Inspector General An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...

and

Office of Professional Responsibility The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), part of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and supervised by the FBI, is responsible for investigating lawyers employed by the Department of Justice who have been accused of misconduct ...

of the Department of Justice, which had concluded that political pressure drove the dismissals of at least three of the federal prosecutors in 2006. Her investigation concluded that "Evidence did not demonstrate that any prosecutable criminal offense was committed with regard to the removal of David Iglesias," "The investigative team also determined that the evidence did not warrant expanding the scope of the investigation beyond the removal of Iglesias," and that "there was insufficient evidence to charge someone with lying to Congress or investigators." On December 10, 2010, Dannehy was named by Connecticut Attorney General elect

George Jepsen George Christian Jepsen
December 17, 1989, ''The New York Times'' (born N ...

to the post of Deputy Attorney General of the state. On March 18, 2019, Dannehy returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut, as Counsel to John H. Durham. She worked with Durham on an

inquiry An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...

into the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. She resigned from the Justice Department on September 10, 2020. In 2021, she was named top legal aide to Connecticut governor Ned Lamont.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dannehy, Nora 1961 births Living people People from Connecticut United States Attorneys for the District of Connecticut Harvard Law School alumni Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy