Jesselyn Radack

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Jesselyn Radack is a former U.S. Department of Justice ethics adviser who argued that John Walker Lindh (the "American Taliban") could not be interrogated without his lawyer present since he was represented by a lawyer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation later questioned Lindh without giving him access to his lawyer.

In the course of Lindh's criminal prosecution, the court ordered all documents associated with his interrogation to be turned over. After some documents were turned over, Radack was asked about the existence of more documents. At that time, Radack looked through the files and discovered that the bulk of her work was missing and had not been turned over. Radack was able to reconstruct much of her work, and she subsequently informed her supervisor that her department had not complied with the court order. However, she was forced to resign before the documents were turned over.

Meanwhile, it was the official position of the Department of Justice that it had no knowledge that Lindh was represented by a lawyer prior to his interrogation--a position contradicted by Radack's files. Upon reading about the government's position in an article in Newsweek, Radack faxed her documents to Newsweek. As a result of her public disclosure, Radack was put under criminal investigation. Ronald Powell, a special agent for the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, informed Radack's new employer of the investigation and questioned its staff and lawyers, and Radack lost her job as a result. After some time, the criminal investigation was closed with no charges, but her case was referred to the state bar of Maryland, which eventually cleared her of all wrongdoing.

As a result of these events, Radack was placed on the no-fly list.

Radack is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.