George J. Terwilliger III

George J. Terwilliger III (born June 5, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods LLP and is a former United States Deputy Attorney General and acting United States Attorney General.^[1][2] Terwilliger, of Vermont, was nominated on February 14, 1992, by President George H.W. Bush to be Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He would succeed William Pelham Barr.^[3] As Deputy Attorney General, Terwilliger became the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that position from 1991 through 1993. He was appointed to the position after serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont. In addition, he currently serves on the Advisory Board of Intellaine, LLP,^[4] a U.S. defense and risk engineering firm located in Arlington, Virginia.

Career

Terwilliger was born June 5, 1950, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Terwilliger is married, has three children, and resides in Oakton, Virginia.^[3] Terwilliger graduated from Seton Hall University (B.A., 1973) and Antioch School of Law (J.D., 1978). A former U.S. Attorney for Vermont and Deputy U.S. Attorney General (1991–93) in the George H. W. Bush administration, Terwilliger specialized in white-collar crime and terrorism.^[5] Terwilliger served as a panelist for the Brookings Institution Judicial Issues Forum entitled "Politics and the Justice Department: Finding a Path to Accountability".^[6] Terwilliger was listed among the "Top Contenders"^[7] to replace Gonzales, "whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress". Gonzales resigned August 27, 2007,^[8] and left office on September 17, 2007.^[9][10] Terwilliger "briefly took the helm of the Justice Department as acting attorney general after the departure of former Attorney General William Barr in 1993."^[11] From 1978 to 1981, Terwilliger also served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Throughout his career, Terwilliger dealt with resolving matters such as investigating BCCI after an international banking scandal and investigating after the savings and loan scandal,^[12] environmental cases, antitrust merger reviews and enforcement matters, civil rights and voting cases as well as terrorism and national security cases. Terwilliger was also in charge of all Justice Department operations, including crisis response, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots. On policy matters, he was a principal in the highest councils of government charged with addressing the broad array of legal policy issues arising in the executive branch.^[1]

Iran-Contra

Terwilliger, Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General Edwin Meese, was described as having acted as the Political Liability Suppression Officer for the Department of Justice in the post-Iran-Contra environment. Terwilliger, in concert with Lowell Jensen (now a federal district judge) acted to suppress or manipulate Iran-Contra prosecutions in sensitive jurisdictions, particularly in Miami, to ensure that no government connection would be mentioned.

In a February 6, 2001 appearance on CNN about Ronald Reagan's "Legal Legacy",^[13] after being asked about "lying to Congress", Terwilliger said:

"... one of the things that I found very bothersome about Iran-Contra was that some of the prosecutions for false statements involved false statements that were made in unrecorded interviews with investigators, not in sworn testimony under oath ....

"But whether or not there was substantive violation of law in Iran-Contra surrounding this policy dispute was never really adjudicated: Nobody was ever charged with that crime ...^[14]

"But the bottom line is that whether or not there was a violation of law, substantively it was problematic. And the fact that people were hounded, pursued, over alleged false statements, I mean, do we hear an echo here to the complaints from the left and from Democrats about an independent counsel hounding somebody for...."

2000 Florida recount

During the Florida 2000 election recount, Terwilliger led Republican President-elect George W. Bush's legal team^[15] and was "an advisor to the Bush-Cheney Transition and counselor to designated cabinet and other prospective appointees."^[1]

Candidate for high-ranking positions

In June 2001, Bush administration spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked in a White House press briefing whether Terwilliger was a leading candidate to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation.^[16]

In 2008, the American Bar Association mentioned Terwilliger as a leading candidate for Attorney General under a John McCain presidency.^[12]

Other activities

In 2003, Terwilliger co-founded the 527 committee Americans for a Better Country with Frank J. Donatelli, former Ronald Reagan White House political director and secretary and treasurer of the Young America's Foundation,^[17] and Craig Shirley, president and CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs.^[18]

It was reported October 10, 2007, that Terwilliger had been hired by former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales "to represent him in investigations of mismanagement" of the U.S. Department of Justice. "Investigators are look[ing] into allegations that Gonzales lied to lawmakers and illegally allowed politics to influence hiring and firing at the department."^[19]

Affiliations

• Counsel, National Gambling Impact Study Commission (1997)^[20]
• Legal Advisory Council, National Legal Center for the Public Interest
• Washington Legal Foundation
• American Bar Association

References

External links

• George Lardner Jr. and Peter Slevin, "Military May Try Terrorism Cases. Bush Cites 'Emergency'," Washington Post (Freedom of Information Center), November 14, 2001.
• "Terror Tribunals," PBS Online NewsHour, November 14, 2001: "Gwen Ifill examines the debate over trying terrorists in military rather than civilian courts with George Terwilliger, former deputy attorney general for the first Bush administration, and Laura Murphy, director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union."
• Dan Eggen, "Reid Says Senators Would Block Olson. Choice for Attorney General Awaited," Washington Post, September 13, 2007.
• Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, "Gonzales Hires a Top Gun. Still under investigation by Congress and Justice Department lawyers who once worked for him, the former attorney general has turned to a leading Washington attorney to help him beat the rap," Newsweek/MSNBC, October 10, 2007.