TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Gonzales Successor Chosen

ADVERTISEMENT

By PHILIP SHENON and BENJAMIN WEISER, The New York Times

Published: September 18, 2007

WASHINGTON - Michael B. Mukasey, the retired federal judge from New York chosen by President Bush as his third attorney general, is nobody's idea of a movement conservative.

His admirers include Sen. Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who led the campaign to oust Alberto Gonzales from the Justice Department and the Alliance for Justice, a liberal group that monitors judicial nominations.

Nor is Mukasey (pronounced mew-KAY-see) a Washington insider with experience in managing a federal bureaucracy. He is a New Yorker through and through.

In private practice before joining the bench, he represented some of his hometown's most showy personalities, including the lawyer Roy Cohn and the socialite Claus von Bulow, and its powerful institutions; he has defended both The Daily News and The Wall Street Journal. His admirers and friends in New York include the former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Manhattan's Democratic district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau.

Although much of that background would suggest that he might not have been Bush's first choice as attorney general, a review of his record shows that he would be likely to defend the administration on the issue that matters most to the president, national security. The White House also seemed confident that he would win confirmation in the Senate, controlled by Democrats.

Mukasey, 66 and now in private practice in Manhattan, has repeatedly spoken out to support the administration's claim to broad powers in pursuing terrorist threats, especially in conducting electronic surveillance of terrorist suspects and in imprisoning them before trial.

His actions after the Sept. 11 attacks in ordering the detention of several young Muslim men as so-called material witnesses in terrorism cases was criticized by immigration lawyers, even as he was praised by the Justice Department.

He has endorsed provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the law passed by Congress after Sept. 11 to grant wide new law-enforcement power to the executive branch, which has been universally condemned by civil liberties groups. 'That awkward name may very well be the worst thing about the statute,' he said in a speech in 2004.

'Judge Mukasey is a fine public servant who knows from experience the challenge that terrorism presents to our country,' Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday in welcoming his nomination as attorney general.

He said Mukasey would 'ensure that the rights and freedoms of the American people are protected, and that includes the freedom from fear of terrorist attacks.'

It is the rest of Mukasey's record on the bench and in private legal practice that has drawn some initial skepticism from conservative groups about his nomination to lead the Justice Department.

During Mukasey's 18 years on the federal bench in Manhattan, his reputation among prosecutors and defense lawyers alike was that of a fair-minded judge who never suggested that his personal political views played any role in his rulings.

Andrew G. Patel, a defense lawyer who represented a defendant in a lengthy trial before Mukasey involving a 1993 conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks and other crimes, said he had 'enormous respect' for the judge despite their frequent disagreements. 'His sense of fairness and due process - it's more than intellectual,' said Patel, also a member of the team representing Jose Padilla, the American citizen found guilty last month of terrorism conspiracy charges. 'It's really down to the genetic level. It's in his DNA.'

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT