William Moschella

William Emil Moschella (born April 17, 1968), a United States lawyer and former Associate Deputy Attorney General.

Career

Moschella received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1990. Following graduation, he spent seven years in a variety of positions in the office of Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), while attending George Mason University Law School in the evenings.^[1] From 1997 to 2003, he held a number of positions on Capitol Hill, including serving as Counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform, General Counsel to the House Committee on Rules, Chief Investigative Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1999 to 2001, and Chief Legislative Counsel and Parliamentarian to the House Committee on the Judiciary.^[2] In 2003, he was nominated by President Bush to serve as United States Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, and he was approved by the Senate on May 9, 2003.^[3]

On October 2, 2006, Moschella was named Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General succeeding William Mercer, who was nominated in early September to serve as Associate Attorney General.^[2]

Controversies

Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy ()
Articles
Timeline Summary of attorneys Documents Congressional hearings List of dismissed attorneys Complete list of related articles
G. W. Bush administration officials involved
Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel William K. Kelley, Deputy White House Counsel William Moschella, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Brett Tolman, U.S. Attorney, District of Utah, former counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Pennsylvania, former Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys from 2004 to 2005
Involved administration officials who resigned
Alberto Gonzales, United States Attorney General, former White House Counsel Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to the Attorney General Michael A. Battle, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Michael Elston, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General Monica Goodling, Justice Department's liaison to the White House William W. Mercer, U.S. Attorney, Acting Associate Attorney General (retains position as U.S. Attorney in Montana) Sara Taylor, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs Paul McNulty, Deputy Attorney General Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel (resigned prior to publicity surrounding the controversy, effective January 31, 2007) Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bradley Schlozman, Director Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys; former Acting Assistant Attorney General for, and later Principal Deputy Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; former interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary 110th Congress
Patrick Leahy, Chair (D) Arlen Specter, Ranking member, former Chair (R) Chuck Schumer, Chair: Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts (D)
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary 110th Congress
John Conyers, Chair (D) Lamar Smith, Ranking member (R) Linda Sánchez, Chair: Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (D)

Moschella was directly involved in making changes to the Patriot Act that allowed interim US Attorneys to serve indefinitely.^[4]

On March 6, 2007, Moschella testified to the House Judiciary Committee that all the US attorneys were fired for performance-related reasons, although he acknowledged that none of the attorneys were originally told why they had been fired. He also testified that the White House had no involvement in the firings of US Attorneys, testimony that was later shown to be incorrect by emails that were subsequently released.^[5]

However, the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Justice, after an exhaustive investigation, found that "Moschella did not know that his testimony . . . was inaccurate. Moschella only reiterated publicly what he had been told about these issues and what [Deputy Attorney General] McNulty had previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee." The IG stated on page 356 of its report: "Under these circumstances, we concluded that Moschella's inaccurate testminony was not his fault and that he should not be criticized for it."^[6]

References

1. "Patriot Act 2005, Panelist Biographis".
2. "Justice Department Announces William E. Moschella as New Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General". October 2, 2006.
3. "Presidential Nominations".
4. Ron Hutcheson; Marisa Taylor; Margaret Talev (March 23, 2007). "Documents highlight Gonzales' role in the firings". McClatchy Newspapers.
5. Michael Isikoff; Richard Wolffe And Evan Thomas (March 26, 2007). "Disorder in King George's Court". Newsweek. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
6. An Investigation into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, 356, (September 2008) (http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s0809a/final.pdf).