Richard Ben-Veniste

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Richard Ben-Veniste

Richard Ben-Veniste (born January 3, 1943), a member of the 9/11 Commission, is known for his pointed questions and criticisms of members of both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

Ben-Veniste graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1960,^[1] received an A.B. from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1964, an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in New York City in 1967, and an LL.M. from Northwestern University School of Law in Evanston, Illinois in 1968.

He served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1968 to 1973, including the turbulent period of the Watergate scandal. Mr. Ben-Veniste was a leading figure in the prosecution of this scandal. He served as chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office. He later aided in the investigations of other issues of national importance, including serving as chief counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee.

Ben-Veniste is a presidential appointee to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, a group mandated to review and declassify documents relating to war crimes in the World War II era. He also co-authored Stonewall: The Real Story of the Watergate Prosecution.

Most recently, Ben-Veniste was appointed to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the "9/11 Commission"), where he has developed a reputation for asking tough questions and demanding access to sensitive documents, although in some circles he has been accused of grandstanding. It was under Ben-Veniste's questioning that Condoleezza Rice was forced to begrudgingly repeat the title of a largely-ignored White House memo: "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

Ben-Veniste is a partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He is Jewish and is married to Donna Grell Ben-Veniste. He has two daughters: Olivia Lorraine and Danielle Ilyana.