Goldstein joins the Mueller team from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, where he was overseeing a separate investigation into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's business and real estate dealings. Mueller has since taken over that investigation as well.
These are the lawyers aiding Mueller in the Russia probe: Joining the prosecution team in June, Zebley had served as Mueller's chief of staff while he was FBI director. Before joining the special counsel's office, he was a partner at law firm WilmerHale, where he focused on cybersecurity issues.
Several of the team's lawyers came from Wilmer-Hale, where Mueller was recently a partner. Some are veteran federal prosecutors who have tried terrorism cases against al Qaeda operatives or mafia bosses. Others bring white-collar criminal expertise.
Mr. Mueller was appointed in the spring of 2017 to oversee the investigation into Russia’s election interference and whether any Trump associates conspired. Having served for decades in law enforcement, Mr. Mueller was previously best known for his 12 years as the director of the F. B. I.
Since Mueller's appointment as special counsel in May 2017, at least 18 prosecutors and lawyers have worked on the inquiry, which is tasked with investigating "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" and any matters that "may arise directly from the investigation." The probe resulted in 34 people and three companies being criminally charged, and there have been seven guilty pleas and one trial conviction.
Weissmann's greatest successes and failures came when he directed the task force investigating Enron, a giant energy company based in Texas that collapsed in 2001. The team racked up over 30 convictions in the highly complex case, but one of them, involving the company's outside auditing firm Arthur Andersen, was reversed by the Supreme Court.
The magazine reported that she had prosecuted 13 people for terrorism since 2009 and never lost a case. Ahmad was involved with former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea, and worked with Andres in the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Aaron Zebley is another WilmerHale alum and is especially close to Mueller; he was his chief of staff at the FBI. Zebley is also a former FBI agent who was involved in an international hunt for al Qaeda terrorists before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Jeannie Rhee worked with Mueller and Quarles at WilmerHale. She rejoined the firm in 2011, resuming work advising clients who are the subject of government investigations, including white-collar criminal investigations, the firm said in its announcement, after spending two years as a deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. There, she "advised the attorney general, the White House and senior agency officials on constitutional, statutory and regulatory issues regarding criminal law, criminal procedure, executive privilege, civil rights and national security," the law firm said.
From 1973 to 1975, he was an assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, which helped force Richard Nixon out of office and prosecuted a number of Nixon administration officials. Jeannie Rhee worked with Mueller and Quarles at WilmerHale. She rejoined the firm in 2011, resuming work advising clients who are ...
Goldstein, a former Time magazine reporter and high school teacher, also prosecuted the CityTime case, involving an automated timekeeping project for New York City employees that exploded in cost from an expected $63 million to more than 10 times that in what the Department of Justice called “the largest municipal fraud and kickback scheme in history.” The probe, the department said, was "a dogged investigation that involved tracing payments through more than 150 foreign and domestic accounts, poring through hundreds of thousands of emails and project documents, interviewing more than 100 witnesses, and securing cooperation from two key insiders."
Goldstein contributed a combined $3,300 to Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
Jed’s notable casework includes arguing in defense of then-secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in 2014 in the Supreme Court case of Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius. The case challenged the contraceptive insurance requirement under ObamaCare. Jed also argued, before the Supreme Court, to strike down the definition of marriage between a man and a woman in the Defense of Marriage Act in the United States v. Windsor.
Federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann (C) is flanked by FBI agents as he speaks to the press outside the federal courthouse in Houston, Texas about the latest round of indictments stemming from the collapse of Enron, May 1, 2003. Also Lea Fastow, wife of Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, is expected to be indicted on tax and mail fraud. REUTERS/Jeff Mitchell JM/ME - RTRMRJX (REUTERS)
Van Grack is an attorney on detail from the National Security Division of the DOJ. Van Grack donated $286 to Obama in 2008.
There is no shortage of examples to fuel the president's case.
Conway said the donations are “relevant information for people to have.”
Goldstein’s old boss has become a prominent Trump critic since his firing and has been particularly outspoken over concerns that Trump may be gearing up to get Mueller fired. In a tweetstorm last week, Bharara openly wondered, “If Mueller is fired, how much obscene & horses-t character assassination will Trump & allies level against this honored military vet?” He added if that happens, “do Trump & allies realize he will forever appear guilty of a crime even if the Special Counsel may not have found one?”
Two other prosecutors on Mr. Mueller’s team, James L. Quarles III and Jeannie Rhee, also left the firm at the same time. As deputy special counsel, Mr. Zebley was less a prosecutor than a kind of steward of the investigation. He had “day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by the office,” said Jim Popkin, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee also criticized the request as a circumvention of House rules. Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the panel, said Democrats were “outsourcing” Mr. Mueller’s responsibility to testify.
Mueller. On the calendars of one of the team’s prosecutors, Mr. Zebley’s initials appear 111 times and next to many “team leader” meetings, suggesting he may have led them.
On Wednesday, Mr. Zebley sat at the witness table with Mr. Mueller during two highly anticipated hearings on the Russia investigation, an unusual arrangement that House Democrats signed off on Tuesday after Mr. Mueller made a last-minute request. Mr.
Mr. Zebley was Mr. Mueller’s chief of staff when he was F.B.I. director and left the bureau with him in 2013. The two joined the law firm WilmerHale the following year, keeping offices next to each other and conducting investigations for the same corporate clients. Then Mr. Zebley again played a chief of staff-like role at the special counsel’s office.
July 24, 2019. WASHINGTON — Aaron Zebley, a top prosecutor in the special counsel’s office, is so close with his former boss, Robert S. Mueller III, that he wears the same kinds of pinstripe suits, white dress shirts and Casio watch.
When Ed O’Callaghan, a senior official at the Justice Department who monitored the Russia investigation, visited the special counsel’s offices for briefings, he met with Mr. Zebley, who also accompanied Mr. Mueller to meetings on Capitol Hill and at the Justice Department.
Mueller has pursued a basic set of questions: How did Russia, on the orders of President Vladimir V. Putin, wage a campaign to illegally influence the 2016 presidential race? Did any Trump associates conspire with Russia’s interference? Has President Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry?
He also played a role in the sentencing of Richard Pinedo, a California man who unwittingly aided the interference. The son of a journalist, Mr. Atkinson is one of the youngest members of the Mueller team. He graduated from law school eight years ago and joined the Justice Department’s national security division.
The second indictment accused 12 Russian intelligence officers in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
They come from familiar places: the Justice Department’s criminal division, federal prosecutors’ offices in New York and around Washington and a law firm where Mr. Mueller worked.
Prelogar deferred her admission to Harvard Law School to pursue a Fulbright scholarship in St. Petersburg, Russia, and went on to clerk for two Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. She also once competed in the Miss America pageant as Miss Idaho.
One of the highest-profile prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller, Mr. Weissmann has prosecuted Mafia bosses and led the task force investigating Enron more than a decade ago. He specializes in flipping witnesses and oversaw or took part in almost every early aspect of the special counsel’s investigation, including Mr. Manafort’s prosecution and the case against Mr. van der Zwaan. Mr. Weissmann’ s aggressive tactics have prompted criticism, but some defense lawyers have noted his compassionate side, and his interests outside work extend to sports — he once attended tennis camp as an adult.
Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, has marshaled prosecutors, F.B.I. agents and other lawyers to investigate Russia’s 2016 election interference and whether any Trump associates conspired. The team has secured indictments against dozens of people and three companies, one trial conviction and a handful of guilty pleas in the highest-profile political inquiry in a generation.
Mueller has added two prosecutors to his legal team since the probe began.
Scott Meisler joined the special counsel in June 2017, according to Mueller spokesman Peter Carr. Meisler joined the special counsel in June 2017. Prior to that, he had worked as an appellate attorney for the Department of Justice’s criminal division since 2009.
Mueller’s team has come under fire in the past year for perceived biases against the President. Conservatives have pointed to team members’ donations to Democratic causes as a major red flag, as well as a 2016 cache of text messages disparaging then-candidate Trump recovered from former team members FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Justice Department guidelines do not allow consideration of party affiliation to affect personnel decisions. Special counsel Mueller himself has been a registered Republican in the past and was first appointed FBI Director by President George W. Bush.
Harold Koh, formerly of the State Department, has said he brought Zelinsky in as a special assistant at the State Department, where he worked the cases of Americans held hostage abroad. Koh calls Zelinsky “an incredible team leader.”. Two FBI veterans have left the team since its inception. Peter Strzok, who had been tapped by Mueller ...
Aaron Zebley is a former partner at the law firm WilmerHale, who previously served with Mueller at the FBI and has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Zebley served as chief of staff to both Mueller and his successor as FBI Director, James Comey.
Andrew Goldstein is an attorney on loan from the Southern District of New York, where he served as former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s Public Corruption chief, and received the Director’s Award from the Bharara in 2015. Goldstein investigated and prosecuted the CityTime case, which the Department of Justice then referred to as “the largest municipal fraud and kickback scheme in history.” Goldstein received further praise from Bharara upon his June appointment to the Mueller probe, when Bharara tweeted, “Best of best in every way. Fair, tough, smart.” Goldstein donated more than $750 to Obama’s 2012 campaign and more than $2,800 to Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Peter Strzok, who had been tapped by Mueller to help lead the probe, left the team last summer, sources told ABC News in August. As chief of the FBI's counterespionage section, he helped oversee the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server when she was the U.S. secretary of state.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has brought 13 lawyers on board to handle the Russia investigation, with plans to hire more, according to his spokesman Peter Carr.
The special counsel’s investigators are looking into questions of Russian interference in last year’s election, and plan to speak to senior intelligence officials, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
As Mueller assembles his investigative team, statements by Trump’s friend Christopher Ruddy this week set off new questions.
Mueller's team has been working with Schneiderman to investigate Manafort's financial transactions and lobbying work for foreign governments, several people familiar with the matter told Politico in late August. Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes, so a case against Manafort from Schneiderman could be used to flip him as a witness against Trump and his campaign. Schneiderman previously won a $25 million settlement from Trump last year after he prosecuted a case of fraud against Trump University.
Weissmann joined Mueller's team in May after taking leave from his job at the DOJ. When Mueller was director of the FBI, he worked under him as a general counsel from 2011 to 2013 and led the task force the prosecuted Enron. Recently he oversaw the probe into Volkswagen's car emissions car fraud scheme.
On Tuesday, Hannity charged that Mueller has "conflicts of interest" in the investigation because he headed the FBI when it was investigating corruption in Russia's state atomic energy company Rosatom, as it vied to buy up American uranium mines in Kazakhstan in 2009.
Supreme Court. As deputy solicitor general he is in charge of prosecuting the Department of Justice's criminal cases. Dreeben is "a demigod of the legal world, respected and feared by everyone in the realm of criminal law," a Washington attorney told the Daily Beast.