Bush Taps Mukasey for Justice

Schumer Suddenly Turns Guarded

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 17, 2007

President Bush's choice of Michael Mukasey, a retired judge from New York who has received the support of Senator Schumer, to be the next attorney general signals that the White House wishes to avoid a Senate confirmation battle.

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Charles Dharapak / AP

President Bush announces his choice for attorney general, Judge Michael Mukasey, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Still, it is unclear whether Mr. Schumer is willing to shepherd Judge Mukasey through confirmation hearings whose main topic could shape up to be the politicization of the Justice Department during Attorney General Gonzales's tenure.

Mr. Schumer, one of the Senate's fiercest critics of Mr. Gonzales, has long touted Judge Mukasey for a position higher than the district court judgeship he held for 19 years. In 2003, the senator recommended the judge as an eventual successor to Chief Justice Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. Earlier this year, he floated Judge Mukasey's name for the attorney general position.

In a statement issued last night, the senator was somewhat guarded. "For sure we'd want to ascertain his approach on such important and sensitive issues as wiretapping and the appointment of US attorneys, but he's a lot better than some of the other names mentioned and he has the potential to become a consensus nominee," the statement said.

President Bush this morning announced his nomination of Judge Mukasey, calling him "clear-eyed about the threat our nation faces."

"He knows what it takes to fight this war effectively and he knows how to do it in a manner consistent with our laws and our Constitution," Mr. Bush said as he stood beside Judge Mukasey in the Rose Garden.

Judge Mukasey said he would be honored to lead the Justice Department.

"My finest hope and prayer at this time is that if confirmed I can give them the support and the leadership they deserve," he said.

Among lawyers, Judge Mukasey has long been seen as a possible candidate for a seat on the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and that he never was nominated to the court suggests he lacked significant political pull in Washington. Mr. Bush has passed over Judge Mukasey for all five vacancies on the circuit that he has filled during his presidency. Last year, Judge Mukasey, who was nominated by President Reagan, left the bench in order to pursue a larger salary at his old law firm, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, sources close to the judge said.

For decades, Judge Mukasey has been a close friend of Mayor Giuliani. He worked beneath Mr. Giuliani both at Patterson Belknap and at the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. It was Mr. Mukasey who swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998. Along with Mr. Olson, Judge Mukasey currently advises the Giuliani campaign on judicial matters. Judge Mukasey's son, Marc, is a partner in the New York office of Mr. Giuliani's law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.

Given his close ties to Mr. Giuliani, Judge Mukasey has faced teasing from friends who have told him not to get too comfortable back at his firm given the prospect of a Giuliani presidency, a source said.

Judge Mukasey's national reputation rests largely on his handling of the nearly yearlong trial in 1995 of a blind sheik and nine followers who plotted to blow up landmarks around New York City, including the United Nations. That trial remains the Justice Department's most ambitious terrorism prosecution to date, and it impressed deeply upon the judge the danger that terrorism poses to this country, acquaintances of the judge have said. Long before September 11, 2001, the judge had a daily reminder of that threat in the form of an around-the-clock security detail provided by the U.S. Marshals Service.

"I think the country could sleep well with him on that job," a partner at the New York office at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Kenneth Bialkin, said. "There is nobody who has a greater sense of integrity and conscientiousness, and nobody who would be less corruptible than he."

He also initially handled a case that has been at the center of the national debate over presidential authority — that involving Jose Padilla, the American citizen the government held for three years as an enemy combatant before bringing criminal charges against him in Florida. In that case, he ruled that Mr. Bush did have the authority to hold Padilla, an American citizen arrested in Chicago as an enemy combatant, a claim that has yet to receive Supreme Court review.

In writings and speeches in recent years, Judge Mukasey has questioned the ability of the civilian criminal justice system to handle terrorism prosecutions. In particular, Judge Mukasey has expressed concern that the rules governing evidence in a criminal trial require the government to publicly disclose too much about its sources.

In an op-ed piece published last month in the Wall Street Journal, Judge Mukasey urged Congress to consider creating national security courts beyond the military commissions in existence at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The op-ed contained few policy details on what rules would govern such courts.

Bush Taps Mukasey for Justice

Schumer Suddenly Turns Guarded

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