Larry Thompson
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This page is about the Deputy Attorney General. For the president of Ringling School of Art and Design, see Larry R. Thompson.
Larry Thompson was a deputy Attorney General of the United States under United States President George W. Bush until August of 2003. From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the northern District of Georgia and led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.The New York Times describes him as "a moderate" who is "respected by both Democrats and Republicans." While Deputy Attorney General, he led counter-terrorism efforts and efforts to punish white-collar crime. Among other accomplishments, he oversaw prosecutions against officials at Enron.
In August 2004 Thompson left the post to serve as senior vice president and general counsel at Pepsico in Purchase, New York. Thompson is also a visiting professor at the University of Georgia law school, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Thompson was previously the director of the Providian Financial Corporation, during the time when Providian paid over $400 million to settle charges of consumer and securities fraud. Thompson made $4.7 million dollar in the sale of Providian stock prior to the allegations. In 2002, Judicial Watch filed suit against Thompson for artificially inflating the stock price in order to illegally increase his earnings in the sale of stock. Thompson has denied any wrongdoing.
Thompson was named in the press as a leading candidate for Attorney General after John Ashcroft resigned on November 9, 2004. Thomson, if selected, would have been the first African-American ever to head the Justice Department. Instead, Alberto Gonzales was selected as Ashcroft's replacement. Recently, Thompson's name was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Thompson is the son of a railroad laborer from Hannibal, Mo. He has a masters and a law degree from the University of Michigan.
From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the northern District of Georgia and led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. He played a specific roles in both the War on Drugs and War on Terrorism, in favour of the George W. Bush administration.
In the course of an investigation it was revealed that early in October 2002 Thompson signed the order to overide torture concerns and remove the Canadian Maher Arar from the US to Syria on accusation of being a terrorist. Syria refused to take Mr. Arar directly, so he was flown to Jordan first and then driven into Syria where he was held incommunicado and tortured. This caused outrage in Canada and with international human rights groups. In September 2006 a Canadian Commission of Inquiry cleared Arar's name.
