Glenn A. Fine

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Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice, 2000-present
Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice, 2000-present

Glenn Alan Fine (circa 1956— ) is the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice, having been confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 2000. Prior to his appointment as Inspector General, Fine served as Special Counsel to the Inspector General from January 1995 until 1996, when he was made Director of the OIG's Special Investigations and Review Unit.[1]

Immediately prior to joining the OIG office at the Department of Justice, Fine had been in a private law practice in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in labor and employment law. Before entering private practice, Fine served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Washington, D.C. United States Attorney's Office from 1986 to 1989. In those three years, he prosecuted more than 35 criminal jury trials and handled numerous grand jury investigations.[1]

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[edit] Personal life

Fine's father was an antitrust lawyer at the Justice Department for 28 years.[2]

In September 1993, Fine married Beth Heifitz, a former law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. The wedding was jointly officiated at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC by Justice Blackmun and Rabbi Howard Gorin. [3]

Heifetz now works as a litigator in Washington, D.C. They have two children and live in a Maryland suburb.[2]

[edit] Education

Fine attended Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. In 1979, he graduated with an A.B. degree in economics from Harvard College, magna cum laude. He was co-captain of the Harvard varsity basketball team.

Though only 5'9", he was a 10th-round draft pick by the San Antonio Spurs, an NBA basketball team, in 1979. Instead, he accepted a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.[1][2] Fine earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oxford.

Fine received his law degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1985.[1]

[edit] Inspector General

Fine was appointed Inspector General of the Department of Justice by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and can be removed by the President. He has a staff of four hundred criminal investigators, auditors and lawyers. The office is expected to be non-partisan.[2]

You’re part of the department, but you’re also independent....You have to recognize that you’re not going to be popular. You have to be as fair and aggressive as you can and just accept that you’re not going to please everyone.

– Glenn A. Fine[2]

[edit] Whistleblower Controversy

Although acknowledging Fine's generally good personal reputation, a former ethics adviser to the Department of Justice named Jesselyn Radack has gone public with accusations that, for blowing the whistle on prosecutorial misconduct in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, the Office of the Inspector General harassed her to the point of trying to invalidate her license to practice law and pressuring the private law firm she joined after leaving DOJ to fire her. As head of the OIG, Fine is responsible for the conduct of the staff under his supervision.[4][5]

[edit] Investigation of Alberto Gonzales 2007

On August 30, 2007, the New York Times reported that Fine had sent a letter to Patrick Leahy, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, indicating that he was beginning an investigation into alleged wrongdoing by outgoing United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.[6]

[edit] Terrorist Screening Center Report 2007

On September 6, 2007, the Department of Justice released a report authored by Fine on the F.B.I.'s Terrorist Screening Center, which was created in 2003 to centralize the dozen "watch lists" then maintained by different agencies. Fine's report stated that 700,000 individuals were in the centralized database, a 400% increase since 2004. He did not reveal how many of the people in the database are on the watch list. Fine's report stated that the TSC remains "unable to ensure that consistent, accurate and complete terrorist information is disseminated to frontline screening agents in a timely manner....A single omission of a terrorist identity or an inaccuracy in the identifying information can have enormous consequences." Fine's report gave twenty examples of known terrorists and suspects whose records were not properly watch-listed, creating the potential that they would be given visas or access at border crossings.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d DOJ/OIG Glenn Fine (United States Department of Justice).
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare of Publicity Finds an Inspector General, March 26, 2007, New York Times. Accessed September 7, 2007.
  3. ^ "WEDDINGS; Beth Heifetz and Glenn A. Fine", New York Times, 2003-09-06. 
  4. ^ Justice Dept. OIG Too Compromised to Investigate Gonzales: Appoint a Special Prosecutor by Jesselyn Radack, August 31, 2007 in The Daily Kos. Accessed September 7, 2007.
  5. ^ "The Trials of Jesselyn Radack" by Douglas MacCollum, July 14, 2003. American Lawyer. Accessed September 7, 2007.
  6. ^ "Testimony by Gonzales Is Subject of Inquiry", 2007-08-30. 
  7. ^ "Inspection Notes Errors In Terror List", September 6, 2007, New York Times. Accessed September 7, 2007.

[edit] External links

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