In a career encompassing litigation, complex civil matters, and arguing before SCOTUS and Court of Appeals for the Federal, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and District of Columbia Circuits, James Quarles most notably brings to the team his experience as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force from 1973 to 75.
The Independent, 19 May 2017:
“There is nothing comparable to the kind of pressure and obligation that this kind of job puts on your shoulders,” Richard Ben-Veniste, a lawyer who served as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal, told CNN describing Mr Quarles’ unique qualifications. “Having been there before, gives him the confidence to know how to do it and how to do it right.”
Area of expertise: Watergate.
Andrew Weissmann
From the senior ranks of the Justice Department as Chief of the Fraud Section, Andy Weissmann brings to Mueller’s team decades of experience prosecuting cases involving organized crime, corporate misconduct and fraud. The two forged a strong professional bond when Weissmann worked for Bob Mueller as the FBI’s general counsel from 2011-13.
Politico, 6 June 2017:
Former Obama DOJ spokeswoman Emily Pierce called Weissmann “an inspired choice” to help Mueller lead the Russia probe.
“As a fraud and foreign bribery expert, he knows how to follow the money. Who knows what they will find, but if there is something to be found, he will find it,” she said.
Among his high profile cases is the lead in the prosecution of executives from Enron for their elaborate schemes to conceal the energy company’s financial woes, and his conviction of members of the Gambino, Colombo and Genovese crime families as a federal prosecutor in New York.
According to the Financial Times, Weissmann also worked on a case involving Russian-born Felix Sater. This is significant because Sater not only has organized crime connections but was a business associate of Trump’s. No doubt Sater remembers that it was Weissmann who signed the deal when Sater agreed to become a government informant after pleading guilty in a $40 million fraud scheme.
As Reuters reported, Mueller will also value Weissmann’s genius for flipping witnesses, a skill that will dovetail neatly with Adbad’s facility for persuading witnesses to coöperate.
Areas of expertise: fraud, organised crime, foreign corruption, global banking and witness-flipping.
Andrew Goldstein
Goldstein was Chief of the public corruption unit in Manhattan when Mueller invited him to join the team. He’s the first chosen from the Southern District of New York, an office renowned for its pursuit of public corruption, white-collar crime and Wall Street fraud. Goldstein was a prosecutor on the team that convicted longtime State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos of public corruption.
Preet Bharara, 1 July 2017:
Andrew Goldstein, my corruption chief, joins Special Counsel Mueller. Best of best in every way. Fair, tough, smart.
Areas of expertise: public corruption, money laundering and racketeering.
Jeannie Rhee
A partner at Mueller’s former law firm, Jeannie Rhee worked within the investigations practice and specialized in cyber security and data breaches. Her past experience with the Department of Justice — advising the White House and the Attorney general on Executive powers as well as national security issues — will no doubt also prove extremely valuable to Mueller whose targets include current and former Executive Branch members.
She Prevailed, 15 June 2017:
Rhee has experience in conducting federal grand jury investigations, prosecuting mail and wire fraud schemes, money laundering, bribery, false statements, and conspiracy. A confessed “doer,” Rhee has said she likes the satisfaction of solving real problems and working with others to get to that end.
Areas of expertise: Executive powers, data forensics, wire fraud, bribery and false statements.
Aaron Zebley
In addition to his legal expertise, Aaron Zembley’s CV also includes law enforcement experience. He spent seven years as an FBI Special Agent, then moved to the National Security and Terrorism Unit as an Assistant US Attorney before serving as Chief of Staff to Robert Mueller when he was Director of the FBI. For the past three years, Zebley has been a partner in the law firm WilmerHale.
The Hill, 31 March 2014:
He also worked in the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division for seven years.
Robert Novick, co-managing partner of WilmerHale, said that Zebley’s experience “will add to our internal investigations, crisis management, and cybersecurity capabilities.”
Areas of expertise: espionage and cybersecurity.
Michael Dreeben
While continuing as the Deputy Solicitor General overseeing DoJ appellate cases, Michael Dreeben has agreed to work part-time with Mueller, most likely in a consultancy role. Widely regarded as the nation’s top criminal law expert, Dreeben’s encyclopedic knowledge is equalled by the breadth of his experience. In 2016, he argued his 100th case before the Supreme Court.
The Washington Post, 9 June 2017:
“Michael is the most brilliant and most knowledgeable federal criminal lawyer in America — period,” said Walter Dellinger, a law professor at Duke University School of Law and acting solicitor general for the 1996-1997 term of the Supreme Court.
“I learned early on in my time as acting [solicitor general] that there was no point of ever thinking of second-guessing Michael on a matter of federal criminal law, because he just knew more than I did or could ever know,” Dellinger said. “He’s a straight shooter and is held in the greatest esteem by the FBI and lawyers in U.S. attorneys offices all over the country.”
Area of expertise: criminal law.
Elizabeth Prelogar
Elizabeth Prelogar, a former law clerk to Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, is a Harvard Law School graduate and formerly worked in private practice at Hogan Lovells. She was a Fulbright scholar in Russia before attending Harvard where, in her first year, she won an Overseas Press Club scholarship to study Russian media and censorship.
National Law Journal, 20 June 2017:
Former solicitor general Donald Verrilli Jr., now a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, hired Prelogar in 2014. “Like Michael Dreeben, she is a person of superb intellect and deep integrity,” Verrilli said Monday. “She can be counted on to call it as she sees it.”
Hogan partner Neal Katyal, who worked with her at the firm, said, "Elizabeth is perhaps the best young lawyer with whom I have ever worked. She is brilliant, completely apolitical, and as by the book as they come. It's no surprise to me Mueller snapped her up” from the Solicitor General’s office.
Areas of expertise: Russian media and censorship, and fluency in the Russian language.
Lisa Page
As a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s organised crime section, Lisa Page specialises in international organised crime and money laundering.
TPM, 7 July 2017:
Page developed experience in money laundering and organized crime cases during her tenure as a trial attorney in the DOJ’s organized crime and gang section. She prosecuted a member of the Lucchese organized crime family and Bulgarian nationals who conducted a money laundering scheme using fake eBay ads.
Areas of expertise: money laundering and organised crime.
Adam Zed
A 2008 Harvard Law graduate, Adam Jed is clerked for SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens before joining the Justice Department’s Civil Division. As a first year law student, Jed was selected as a Gates scholar at the University of Cambridge where he pursued a master’s degree in modern society and global transformation. He was particularly interested in comparative legal issues with a focus on “European discrimination law and civil rights issues common to Europe and the United States,” Jed told the Yale Daily News.
National Law Journal, 22 June 2017:
Jed, a member of the New York bar, joined the Justice Department through the highly competitive Honors Program. “He is an excellent lawyer” who worked on a wide range of appellate matters in the Civil Division, said Covington & Burling partner Beth Brinkmann, who formerly led the civil appellate staff at Main Justice under former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.
Areas of expertise: civil rights and comparative legal issues re Europe and the US.
Rush Atkinson
Recruited for his expertise in complex cases involving corporate malfeasance, Rush Atkinson officially joined Mueller’s team on 26 June 2017. A trial attorney in the fraud section of the DOJ’s criminal division, Atkinson helped indict a former top executive at Bankrate Inc, a financial services company, for manipulating the company’s statements and artificially inflating its earnings.
In 2011, Atkinson joined the Department of Justice’s National Security Division as part of its Honors Program. In addition to providing legal and policy advice on national security, the Division litigates counterterrorism and counterespionage, represents the U.S. government before the FISA Court, and oversees various intelligence activities. Atkinson worked in the Office of Intelligence.
NYU Law news, 14 January 2011:
“Rush represents the best of the new generation of national security lawyers,” said Professor Samuel Rascoff, who taught Atkinson. “He properly sees the law of counterterrorism as demanding rigorous analysis and judgment, not ideological rigidity, and he’s landed at the office within the Department of Justice where the new legal architecture of American national security is being devised and implemented.”
Areas of expertise: corporate misconduct, counterespionage, FISA.
Brandon Van Grack
A veteran prosecutor in the counterespionage section of the DOJ’s national security division, Brandon Van Grack joined Mueller’s team on 2 July 2017. In two recent cases, Van Grack helped prosecute a former government contractor who stole classified national defense documents and a computer hacker who stole the names and contact information of over 1,000 government and military workers.
TPM, 7 July 2017
Van Grack had led a grand jury inquiry in the Eastern District of Virginia into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn’s lobbying on behalf of foreign governments, which reportedly has since been picked up by Mueller.
Areas of expertise: counterespionage and national security.
Aaron Zelinski
A prosecutor with extensive experience in racketeering cases, Aaron Zelinsky has spent the past 3 years working as assistant US Attorney in Maryland under Rod Rosenstein who replaced Sally Yates as Deputy and part-time Acting Attorney General. Aaron Zelinsky’s CV notably includes teaching constitutional law at the Peking University School of Transnational Law (Shenzhen, China), and foreign relations and national security law at the University of Maryland.
BuzzFeed News, 27 June 2017:
Former State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh, for whom Zelinsky previously worked, said in an email to BuzzFeed News that Rosenstein had “sung his praises.”
“Aaron is an outstanding and fair-minded young prosecutor who will follow the facts and law where they lead. You can count on him to conduct any investigation based on law, not politics,” Koh said.
Areas of expertise: organised crime, national security, constitutional law and China.
Zainab Ahmad
The Eastern District of NY (EDNY) is renowned for success in prosecuting organized crime. After the 9/11 attacks, EDNY also became known as an aggressive prosecutor of terrorism, securing more convictions than any other U.S. Attorney’s office. Contributing to this success is Zainab Ahmad who specializes in counterterrorism extraterritorial cases, which means spending time overseas negotiating with foreign officials and interviewing witnesses. She has a highly-prized skill for persuading witnesses to coöperate.
New Yorker, 15 May 2017
“They’re treasure troves of information about the networks, once they decide to coöperate,” Ahmad told me. “Some of them didn’t expect to be here, to face any consequences. Now they’re very vulnerable. You pull the levers.” She has prosecuted thirteen people for terrorism since 2009, and has not lost a case.
The public has unique expectations of law enforcement with respect to terrorism. “When there’s a bank robbery, we try to solve the crime,” Ahmad said. “But nobody thinks our job is to stamp out bank robbery. Terrorism is different. People expect us to prevent it.” Many terror cases are difficult to make, with the strongest evidence often classified or inadmissible. “And we can’t afford to lose,” Ahmad told me. “We can’t get anything wrong. If we lost a major extraterritorial case, there might never be another chance.”
Areas of expertise: terrorism, extraterritorial law, extradition, witness coöperation.
Peter Carr
The only non attorney in this team, Peter Carr was chosen to be the Justice league’s spokesperson. He is another with an interesting and varied background. Carr was attached to Orrin Hatch’s staff as spokesman from 2002-07 which included a re-election campaign in 2006. From there he moved to Alexandria to serve as spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). Carr’s mission on Mueller’s team will be to handle media inquiries related to the high-profile investigation.
Politico, 26 May 2017:
Carr has worked at Justice Department headquarters since 2013 as the top spokesman for the Criminal Division. He also did a stint recently as the acting director of public affairs while Obama appointees were cycling out and Trump picks were cycling in.
Areas of expertise: professional relationship with attorneys and familiarity with EDVA
Pluck from their areas of expertise these keywords:
Watergate, Executive powers, national security, cybercrime, civil rights, criminal law,
organized crime, money laundering, racketeering, corruption, witness-flipping,
fraud and foreign bribery, fluency in Russian, counterespionage,
counterterrorism, extraterritorial law, China
EDVA
and the composite is revealing in the context of Mueller’s Russiagate assignment. Like the opening scene from the Mission: Impossible television series, Robert Mueller is assembling a team comprising a range of expertise that will have every aspect of Russiagate covered — and we have a window into what those aspects are by ‘reading the signs’, ie the specialized skills each individual brings to the team.
This exemplification of the team majority represents a dazzling line-up. If the sum of its parts is greater than its individual talents, expertise and experience, it will indeed be Robert Mueller’s Justice League, and a formidable force majeure.