Michael Mukasey

Micheal B. Mukasey (born 1941, Bronx, NY) is a former federal district judge for the Southern District of New York. Nominated by Ronald Regan, Mukasey presided until his retirement in 2006, compiling a tenure that is widely viewed with favor. Following the resignation of Alberto Gonzalez, Mukasey was nominated by President George W. Bush to be federal attorney general.

Conservatives had anticipated that Bush would pick former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to block his confirmation. A former member of the Justice Department stated that the decision "came down to confirmability."

Mukasey is a member of the Justice Advisory Committee of Giuliani's presidential campaign and his son is a law partner with Guiliani. Democrat senator Chuck Schumer has praised Mukasey past work and in 2003 he placed him on the acceptable "consensus" candidate list for the Supreme Court.

Mukasey presided over thousands of cases, many of them high-stake affairs. In 1996, he presided over the trail of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the jihadist behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and eleven co-defendants, who were convicted and received lengthy prison terms. His work in this important trial earned praise from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated in a review of the trial,

"The trial judge, the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, presided with extraordinary skill and patience, assuring fairness to the prosecution and to each defendant and helpfulness to the jury. His was an outstanding achievement in the face of challenges far beyond those normally endured by a trial judge."

He also presided over the recent dispute between Larry Silverstein and insurers related to the World Trade Center site.

Mukasey earned his bachelor’s degree at Columbia before graduating from Yale Law School in 1967. He left his law practice in 1988 for his appointed position as federal judge. In 2006, Mr. Mukasey announced that he was retiring to take a job at the law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.