Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary - Nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States

Statement

Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary - Nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for the honor of introducing Judge Mukasey.

It's a privilege to be introducing a fellow New Yorker at today's hearing. I congratulate Judge Michael B. Mukasey on his nomination to be the 81st attorney general of the United States. I want to also welcome your family members who travelled here for this important day -- your wife, Susan; your children, Marc and Jessica. I'm sure you all are very proud of your husband, father; and other relations that I know are here as well.

Judge Mukasey has had a long and illustrious career that I can give only the briefest of highlights here. Born and raised in the Bronx, Judge Mukasey graduated from Columbia College and from Yale Law School, where he served on the Board of Editors for the Yale Law Review. Then he served for a number of years in both private practice and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, where he rose to become chief of the official corruption unit.

Starting in 1988 and for 18 years, Michael Mukasey was a federal district court judge for the Southern District of New York, culminating in his serving as chief judge. There he presided over some of the most important and historic cases of the day, including the case of Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the blind sheikh; Jose Padilla and many others.

All the while, Judge Mukasey earned a reputation for efficiency, fairness and integrity. Even those who did not always receive the benefit of a judge's favorable ruling -- of a favorable ruling have been quick to describe the judge's basic fairness and decency. Upon his retirement from the bench, one of Jose Padilla's lawyers said, quote, "I admire him greatly," and described herself as, quote, "Another weeping fan," unquote.

Another Padilla lawyer has said, quote, "I don't always agree with where he comes out, but I'm always happy to draw him as a judge. You are going to get your day in court." Unquote. He went on to say, quote, "His sense of fairness and due process is more than intellectual, it's really down to the genetic level. It's in his DNA." There are many such testimonials for Judge Mukasey from people he would not agree with politically.

But none of Judge Mukasey's experiences, as varied and as valuable as they have been, can prepare him fully for the job that lies ahead. If confirmed, his task will be no less momentous and no less difficult than that facing Edward Levi when he took the reins of the John Mitchell's Justice Department after Watergate, because he will inherit an agency experiencing its greatest crisis since Watergate. By every account, the Justice Department is leaderless and rudderless. It is dysfunctional and in disarray. It is demoralized and decimated.

Our investigation this year demonstrated the department's prior leadership sorely lacked credibility, competence, independence. Against that backdrop and with only 14 months left, the department does not now need a series of bold initiatives. Rather, it needs steady leadership. This is, we might say, a rebuilding year. The most important qualities we need in an attorney general right now are independence and integrity. And looking at Judge Mukasey's career and his interviews that we have all had with him, it seems clear that Judge Mukasey possesses these vital attributes.

The bottom line is this. There have been many conservative department lawyers who were honorable and showed allegiance to the rule of law. Former Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey comes to mind. So does the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Jack Goldsmith. And as we now know, even John Ashcroft, much maligned for so long, showed genuine courage and conviction at important moments when the rule of law might have fallen victim to those, some in the administration, who disrespected the Constitution.

I do not agree with any of these -- with these men on many or even most policy issues, Comey and Goldsmith. I have no illusions about Judge Mukasey, either. From talking with him, it's clear that many of us are going to disagree with many of his views, and with some quite strongly. But at this time the most important question is this: Will Judge Mukasey be independent enough and courageous enough to stand strong, even against the man who nominated him if that is what the law requires?

Former Deputy Attorney Jim Comey gave an eloquent speech to the National Security Agency in the spring of 2005, and his words are worth noting as we consider the nomination of Judge Mukasey. Comey said this: "It is the job of a good lawyer to say yes; it is as much the job of a good lawyer to say no. 'No' is much harder. 'No' must be spoken into a storm of crisis with loud voices all around, with lives hanging in the balance. 'No' is often the undoing of a career, and often, 'no' must be spoken in competition with the voices of other lawyers who do not have the courage to echo this."

And so yesterday I asked Judge Mukasey, and I will ask him again today, this question. Be one more minute, Mr. Chairman. If confirmed, will you have the courage to look squarely into the eyes of the president of the United States and tell him no if that is your best legal and ethical judgment? Judge Mukasey then looked me in the eye and assured me, absolutely that is what I am there for. He also assured me he'll go back and reexamine the legal opinions that underlie various controversial administration policies --

SEN. LEAHY: Senator Schumer, I don't mean to cut you off, but we're going to have to have a break because of the Dalai Lama. Are you going to take much longer? Otherwise, let's finish up.

SEN. SCHUMER: No, I have 30 seconds, Mr. Chairman.

He also assured me he'll go back and reexamine the legal opinions that underlie various controversial administration policies, such as warrantless wiretapping, detention and torture. Further he assured me, and I trust he will assure this committee, that he will be a voice for working with the Congress rather than going at it alone.

In these answers, Mr. Chairman, lies the hope we have a nominee, albeit conservative, who will put the rule of law first, who will earn the respect of the country and will --

SEN. LEAHY: Thank you, Senator Schumer.

SEN. SCHUMER: -- restore the department to its full promise. I expect this hearing --

SEN. LEAHY: Senator Lieberman.

SEN. SCHUMER: -- to demonstrate that this hope is justified.

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