William Moschella

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William Emil Moschella (born April 17, 1968), a United States lawyer and political appointee as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in the administration of President George W. Bush.

[edit] Career

Moschella received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1990. Following graduation, he spent seven years in a variety of positions in the office of Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), while attending George Mason University Law School in the evenings.^[1] From 1997 to 2003, he held a number of positions on Capitol Hill, including serving as Counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform, General Counsel to the House Committee on Rules, Chief Investigative Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1999 to 2001, and Chief Legislative Counsel and Parliamentarian to the House Committee on the Judiciary.^[2] In 2003, he was nominated by President Bush to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, and he was approved by the Senate on May 9, 2003.^[3]

On October 2, 2006, Moschella was named Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General succeeding William Mercer, who was nominated in early September to serve as Associate Attorney General.^[4]

[edit] Controversies

Main article: Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy ( v • d • e )
Articles Main issues Timeline Summary of attorneys Documents Congressional hearings List of Dismissed Attorneys Complete list of related articles
Administration Officials Involved Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel William K. Kelley, Deputy White House Counsel William Moschella, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Brett Tolman, U.S. Attorney, District of Utah, former counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee Involved Administration Officials that Resigned Alberto Gonzales, United States Attorney General, former White House Counsel Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to the Attorney General Michael A. Battle, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Michael Elston, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General Monica Goodling, Justice Department's liaison to the White House William W. Mercer, U.S. Attorney, Acting Associate Attorney General (retains position as U.S. Attorney in Montana) Sara Taylor, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs Paul McNulty, Deputy Attorney General Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel (resigned prior to publicity surrounding the controversy, effective January 31, 2007) Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Bradley Schlozman, Director Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys; former Acting Assistant Attorney General for, and later Pricipal Deputy Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; former interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Patrick Leahy, Chair (D) Arlen Specter, Ranking member, former Chair (R) Chuck Schumer, Chair: Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts (D)
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary John Conyers, Chair (D) Lamar Smith, Ranking member (R) Linda Sánchez, Chair: Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (D)

Moschella was directly involved in making changes to the Patriot Act that allowed interim US Attorneys to serve indefinitely.^[5]

On March 6, 2007, Moschella testified to the House Judiciary Committee that all the US attorneys were fired for performance-related reasons, although he acknowledged that none of the attorneys were originally told why they had been fired. He also testified that the White House had no involvement in the firings of US Attorneys, testimony that was later shown to be incorrect by emails that were subsequently released.^[6]