Washington, DC - Andrew Weissmann has been selected as the Chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell.
“Andrew Weissmann is an extraordinary attorney with an incomparable dedication to the pursuit of justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “As his deep experience demonstrates, many of the top officials throughout the Department of Justice have come to rely upon his wise counsel over the years, and I am pleased to welcome him back to the Criminal Division.”
Weissmann has dedicated the majority of his 30-year professional career to public service and the Department of Justice. He returns to the Criminal Division after serving as the FBI’s general counsel under former Director Robert S. Mueller and, most recently, teaching criminal procedure and national security law courses and seminars at NYU School of Law. Before his tenure at the FBI, Weissmann was a partner at Jenner & Block in New York for five years, a member of its Management Committee, and co-chair of the firm’s White Collar Practice Group, where he worked on a broad range of matters including ones involving securities fraud, antitrust, health care fraud and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Prior to joining that law firm, Weissmann served as special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Before that he was the deputy director and then the director of the Enron Task Force from 2002 through 2005, where he oversaw the investigations and prosecutions of more than 30 individuals, including Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay, and Andrew Fastow, as well as the corporate prosecutions of Merrill Lynch and CIBC.
Weissmann began his career with the Department of Justice in 1991 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, where he served in various leadership positions, including as chief of the Criminal Division, until joining the Enron Task Force. While at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Weissmann tried more than 25 cases and was instrumental in bringing to justice high-ranking members of the Genovese, Colombo and Gambino crime families and combating the infiltration of organized crime on Wall Street.
During his tenure with the Department of Justice, Weissmann received many honors, including the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2006, Director’s Awards for Superior Performance in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2000, and Special Achievement Awards in 2003 and 2004.
Weissmann joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office after working as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He served as a law clerk for the Hon. Eugene H. Nickerson in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Geneva, and graduated from Columbia Law School, where he served on its law review. Weissmann has also taught at Fordham Law School and Brooklyn Law School.
