Beth Wilkinson

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Beth A. Wilkinson is a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer, perhaps best known for her successful argument for the execution of Oklahoma City Federal Building bomber Timothy McVeigh. She has also been a critic of unfair administration of the death penalty. She currently serves as Fannie Mae's executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary.

Wilkinson graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. and from the University of Virginia Law School with a J.D. She joined the United States Army's Honors Program and served as a captain and assistant for intelligence and special operations in the office of the Army's general counsel. That office detailed her as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida to assist with the use of classified information in the prosecution of Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega. ^[1]

After completing her four-year obligation to the Army, Wilkinson became a full-time Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1991, prosecuting various kinds of cases including narcotics, white collar offenses, and violent crimes. Among her cases was the first United States prosecution of a bombing of an airliner--the 1994 case against Colombian narcoterrorist Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, whom she successfully prosecuted for the bombing of an Avianca civilian airliner as well as murder of U.S. citizens and other drug-related crimes. ^[2]

Wilkinson won the Justice Department's highest honor, The Attorney General's Exceptional Service Award, for her work on Mosquera case. She then became special counsel to the deputy attorney general, advising the top management of the Department on criminal policy and investigations. She was promoted to principal deputy of the Department's Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, and it was in that capacity that she participated in the trial team in U.S. vs. McVeigh and Terry Nichols. She won the Attorney General's Exceptional Service Award an unprecedented second time. ^[3]

After leaving the Justice Department, Wilkinson became a co-chair of the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Initative, "a bipartisan committee of death penalty supporters and opponents who all agree that the risk of wrongful executions in this country has become too high." ^[4] She also became a partner in Latham & Watkins, LLP, Washington, D.C., where she co-chaired the White Collar Practice Group and advised clients on internal investigations. ^[5]

Fannie Mae recruited Wikinson as parts of its effort to rebuild its relationship with regulators after accounting scandals and complaints about its corporate culture. ^[6]

She is married to NBC White House correspondent David Gregory, with whom she has three children. ^[7]