Bush picks Mukasey for attorney general

Bush picks Mukasey for attorney general
Judge oversaw trial of 'blind sheik' in 1993 World Trade Center case

President Bush nominated retired federal judge Michael Mukasey on Monday to be the next attorney general, selecting a man who he said has strong credentials in national security and fairness.

In his 18 years on the federal bench, "He earned the reputation as a tough but fair judge," Bush said in the Rose Garden announcement Monday, adding that Mukasey is "widely admired for his brilliance and integrity."

Pointing to his experience in overseeing the trial of the "blind sheik" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as experience in waging the War on Terror, Bush said, Mukasey "knows what it takes to fight this war effectively, and he knows how to do it in a manner that is consistent with our laws and our Constitution."

Bush urged the Senate to confirm Mukasey quickly.

Earlier, a senior administration official told FOX News: "Mukasey has a wealth of legal and judicial experience, and has a superb reputation for his fairness, intellect, and dedication to public service. The president is confident that Americans will be proud to have such an accomplished and highly-qualified lawyer, former federal prosecutor and former federal judge with extensive experience in national security cases to serve as America's chief law enforcement officer," the official said Monday, adding that "it is essential that the U.S. Senate moves quickly to consider his nomination."

The naming of Mukasey is likely to prevent a sticky confirmation fight in the Senate, though at least one senator, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that several Justice Department issues still under investigation will not be dropped.

If Mukasey gets a nod from the Senate, he will take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sworn testimony on the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Mukasey will begin making courtesy calls on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, and the White House hopes he will be confirmed by Oct. 8. She added that the administration is hoping this goes smoothly.

"It's not the president who's looking for a fight. Senate Democrats have made the Department of Justice their cause celebre over past months. If they decide to make issue about this nomination, it will be at their feet, they'll have to explain to the American people," she said. 'We're not looking for a fight, I'd be surprised if the Senate is either."

Mukasey, 66, was nominated as a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and served until his retirement in September 2006, becoming the top judge in the Manhattan federal court.

He presided over the 1995 New York City terror trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 co-defendants, who were convicted and received lengthy jail terms for their roles in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In the 1996 sentencing of co-conspirators in the case, Mukasey accused the sheik of trying to spread death "in a scale unseen in this country since the Civil War." He then sentenced the blind sheik to life.

More recently, he appointed a lawyer to Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who was arrested in 2002 on a supposed mission to detonate a "dirty bomb."

Before the hearing on whether there was sufficient cause to detain Padilla, Bush declared him an enemy combatant. That began a years-long legal ordeal that ended with Padilla back in a different federal court, where he was convicted last month of murder conspiracy.

Since entering private life, Mukasey has become an adviser to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. He would sever those ties if confirmed, the White House said.

He also returned to a partnership at the New York law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in September 2006, a firm he first joined in 1976 after serving as assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the Southern District under Giuliani, and where he rose to head its official corruption unit.

"I would say he's a sort of hard — a tough-minded conservative judge who will be a strong attorney general, not a movement conservative. I don't think he'll get into social issues, that sort of thing. Those Bush policies are already in place," said FOX News contributor and Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol, who first wrote the news in an online version of his magazine.

Click here to read The Weekly Standard article.

"I think the best thing about him, from a conservative point of view, is he will be an extremely effective witness before Congress when FISA, the eavesdropping program, comes up for reauthorization, as it will in a few months. On all War on Terror issues, he will be to War on Terror issues what (Gen. David) Petraeus is, I think, to military issues, an independent, well-respected person who's pretty much in agreement with the president's policies," he continued.

Asked about the nomination, Sen. Joe Biden, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he doesn't know anything about the judge, but he will have to pass a Democratic test before being confirmed.

"As long as he can prove — not prove, assert, and I believe that he understands he's not just the president's lawyer but the country's lawyer, I could support him. But I don't know enough about him, so he has to pass that test for me, go through that filter. Is he going to be the president's guy? Is he going to — or is he going to stand up and defend the Constitution and be the people's lawyer as well? And I just don't know the answer to that," Biden said on "FOX News Sunday."

Mukasey already has earned support from liberal Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who repeated his confidence in the judge late Sunday.

"While he is certainly conservative, Judge Mukasey seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House, our most important criteria. For sure we'd want to ascertain his approach on such important and sensitive issues as wiretapping and the appointment of U.S. attorneys, but he's a lot better than some of the other names mentioned and he has the potential to become a consensus nominee," Schumer said.

Nan Aron of the liberal Alliance for Justice said the Senate would likely view Mukasey's nomination as a "conciliatory" act.

"He'd be closely scrutinized, but at the end of the day he would probably be confirmed," she said. "It would certainly be a departure for the Bush administration to send up a consensus candidate."

Schumer's support could turn off some conservatives, but Kristol said Republican senators will come out in force for him.

"I think every Republican will vote to confirm him. It's unfortunate that Chuck Schumer respects him, but you can't do that much about some people saying nice things about you. He is widely respected on both sides of the aisle," said Kristol, whose article noted that Schumer and Aron supported Mukasey only after it became clear that Mukasey was not going to be on the short list of possible Supreme Court nominees.

On a series of conference calls Sunday, conservative groups decided not to oppose Mukasey's nomination, despite some skepticism due to the liberal groups support for him. That opposition went nowhere as the groups were assured Mukasey would play no role, or a very limited one, in filling any Supreme Court vacancy. Conservative groups also decided Bush had no political capital left to fight for anyone but a Democratic-approved nominee. As a result, Mukasey is off to a good start and won't have to endure the same criticism that accompanied the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, Bush's former White House counsel.

Perino said that the search process for a new attorney general was deliberate and the president took time to make a careful, unrushed decision. Bush offered the job to Mukasey on Friday after a search was led by Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and White House counsel Fred Fielding. The president also took recommendations from members of Congress and other government officials. Senators from both sides of the aisle apparently mentioned Mukasey to Bolten and Fielding, Perino said.

Mukasey visited the White House on Saturday, Sept. 1, after which the search team met with Bush following his return from the APEC conference in Australia. Perino said Mukasey's legal experience, leadership qualities and understanding of threats against the country put him at the top of the list.

Mukasey is set to replace Gonzales, whose last day as attorney general was Friday. Gonzales quit after 2-1/2 years at the Justice Department amid investigations into whether he broke the law and lied to Congress. He has denied any wrongdoing.

On Friday, his last day at the department, Gonzales was feted at a standing-room-only Justice Department farewell ceremony. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former White House chief of staff Andy Card and Olson were in the audience.