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Steven Engel

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For other people with similar names, see Stephen Engel (disambiguation).

Steve Engel
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
In office
November 13, 2017 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byCurtis E. Gannon
Succeeded byChristopher H. Schroeder
Personal details
Born
Steven Andrew Engel

(1974-06-29) June 29, 1974 (age 50)
New Hyde Park, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of Cambridge (MPhil)
Yale University (JD)

Steven Andrew Engel (born June 29, 1974)[1][2] is an American lawyer. He served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Donald Trump administration.[3] Engel, who previously worked in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and confirmed on November 7, 2017.[4] On January 20, 2021, he was succeeded by Christopher H. Schroeder, serving under the Biden Administration.[5]

Early life and education

Engel was born on June 29, 1974, in New Hyde Park, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City.[1] He was raised in Port Washington, New York and graduated as valedictorian from Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in 1992, earning a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1996.[1][6] From 1996–1997, Engel was a Knox Fellow at University of Cambridge.[1][7][8] He was awarded a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2000,[1] and then clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, followed by a clerkship for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.[1][9][3]

Early career

Engel practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis from 2002 through 2006[1] before serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration from 2006 through 2009.[1] In June 2009, Engel became a partner at Dechert, an international law firm.[7][6][3]

On January 31, 2017, the White House announced that President Donald Trump intended to nominate Engel to serve as the Assistant Attorney General heading the Office of Legal Counsel.[4][2] Engel's nomination was opposed by U.S. Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war who was tortured while in captivity. McCain cited Engel's involvement in commenting on and reviewing one of the so-called "Torture memos" that signed off on six different "enhanced interrogation techniques."[10] Various human rights groups expressed concerns about Engel's nomination, also citing his involvement with the July 20, 2007, memo authored by Steven G. Bradbury, then-head of the OLC.[11] The Senate Judiciary Committee received support for the nomination from former Attorneys General Mukasay and Gonzales, other former senior executive branch officials, and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the City of New York.[12] Engel was confirmed by a 51–47 vote, largely along party lines with one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia), voting in favor of confirmation.[13]

In November 2017, Engel issued an opinion supporting the President’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as the Acting Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Board under the Vacancies Reform Act.[14]

In April 2018, Engel approved airstrikes launched by President Trump against facilities associated with Syria’s chemical-weapons program without congressional authorization.[15] In March 2019, Engel issued a memorandum to Attorney General William Barr making the determination that the evidence laid out in the Mueller report did not support the conclusion that then-President Trump committed obstruction of justice.[16] (This memo was ordered released in May 2021, and was finally released in August 2022.[17])

In May 2019, Engel issued an opinion concluding that the former White House Counsel, Don McGahn, was immune from compelled congressional testimony.[18] The House Judiciary Committee challenged that decision, and Engel’s opinion was rejected by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was later nominated by Joe Biden to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson’s opinion was twice reversed by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit.[19]

In June 2019, Engel issued an OLC opinion supporting the Justice Department's decision not to release Donald Trump's tax returns.[20]

In September 2019, Engel authored the OLC opinion[21] of the Justice Department to not forward the Trump–Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint[22] to Congress. The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency concluded that Engel's opinion had a "chilling effect on effective oversight" and was "wrong as a matter of law and policy"; urging him to withdraw or modify it.[23][24][25] Engel responded that the opinion had simply applied the law as it was written and that it did not construe the statutory provisions protecting whistleblowers.[26]

Engel's November 3, 2019 letter

In a letter dated November 3, 2019, Engel argued that White House advisors have "absolute immunity" from being subpoenaed to testify in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[27][28][29]

On September 9, 2020, President Donald Trump identified Engel among a list of potential future nominees to the Supreme Court.[30]

In January 2021, after then-President Donald Trump's re-election bid failed, Trump undertook a number of unprecedented acts to overturn the 2020 election, including a pressure campaign to request the Justice Department to falsely claim fraud and invalidate the results of the election in key battleground states. Engel, along with Richard Donoghue and others, refused to carry out the scheme and reportedly threatened to resign if he replaced Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey B. Clark in an effort to overturn the election.[31][32][33][34][35][36] On June 23, 2022, Engel testified in the fifth public hearing of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Private practice

In May 2021, Dechert LLP announced that Engel had rejoined their law firm as a partner.[37][38][39]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Non-Judicial Nominees" (PDF). judiciary.senate.gov. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Steven A. Engel to be Nominated to Assistant Attorney General Role" (Press release). Dechert. February 1, 2017. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Meet the Leadership". justice.gov. United States Department of Justice. November 13, 2017. Archived from the original on December 6, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Miller, S.A. (January 31, 2017). "Trump names three senior Justice officials". Washington Times. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  5. ^ "Acting Assistant Attorney General Christopher E. Schroeder". www.justice.gov. January 11, 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Straehley, Steve (February 24, 2017). "Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel: Who Is Steven A. Engel?". AllGov. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  7. ^ a b "Former DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel Joins Dechert LLP" (PDF) (Press release). Dechert. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  8. ^ Office of Public Affairs (November 7, 2017). "Attorney General Sessions Welcomes Steven Engel As Assistant Attorney General for the Office Of Legal Counsel" (Press release). United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  9. ^ Mauro, Tony (January 25, 2017). "Dechert Partner Is Trump's Likely Pick to Head 'President's Law Firm' Within DOJ". National Law Journal. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  10. ^ Kim, Seung Min (November 8, 2017). "McCain opposes Trump nominee over torture memos". Politico. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  11. ^ "Groups Express Concern over US Office of Legal Counsel Nominee". hrw.org. Human Rights Watch. June 7, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  12. ^ "Grassley: Engel Well-Equipped to Lead Office of Legal Counsel". Committee on the Judiciary. November 7, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  13. ^ "U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 115th Congress – 1st Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  14. ^ Phil Helsel (November 25, 2017). "Justice Department says Trump can appoint head of consumer watchdog". NBC. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  15. ^ Charlie Savage (June 1, 2018). "Trump Had Power to Attack Syria Without Congress, Justice Dept. Memo Says". Washington Post. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  16. ^ Luscombe, Richard (May 5, 2021). "Judge orders release of memo on Trump obstruction decision". The Guardian. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  17. ^ "Justice Department releases Mueller-era memo on Trump prosecution". politico.com. August 24, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  18. ^ "Testimonial Immunity Before Congress of the Former Counsel to the President". Justice.gov. May 20, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  19. ^ Ann E. Marimow (April 23, 2021). "Court delays House lawsuit seeking to enforce Donald McGahn subpoena". Washington Post. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  20. ^ Rappeport, Alan (June 14, 2019). "Justice Dept. Backs Mnuchin's Refusal to Release Trump's Tax Returns". The New York Times. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  21. ^ ""Urgent Concern" Determination by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community". justice.gov. September 3, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  22. ^ "Unclassified Whistleblower Complaint" (PDF). August 12, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  23. ^ Volz, Dustin (October 25, 2019). "U.S. Watchdog Council Says Justice Department Erred in Blocking Whistleblower Complaint". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  24. ^ Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (October 22, 2019). "Letter to Steven A. Engel" (PDF). Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  25. ^ Naham, Matt (October 25, 2019). "IG Handling FISA Probe, Others Blast OLC for Concluding Whistleblower Complaint Wasn't 'Urgent Concern'". lawandcrime.com. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  26. ^ "Office of the Assistant Attorney General" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. October 25, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  27. ^ Becket, Stefan; Hymes, Clare; Legare, Jon (November 12, 2019). "Mulvaney will defer to Trump and will not testify in impeachment hearings". CBS News. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  28. ^ Reid, Paula (November 4, 2019). "Committees release first transcripts in Trump impeachment inquiry". CBS News. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  29. ^ Cook, Nancy (November 4, 2019). "Trump's latest legal strategy on impeachment: Run out the clock". Politico. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  30. ^ Seung Min Kim; Ann E. Marimow (September 9, 2020). "Trump announces more possible Supreme Court nominees". Washington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  31. ^ McQuade, Barbara (October 12, 2021). "Trump's DOJ officials stopped his January election scheme. But they're not heroes". MSNBC. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  32. ^ Buchman, Brandi (July 30, 2021). "Notes show how hard Trump leaned on DOJ to label election corrupt". Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  33. ^ Benner, Katie (January 23, 2021). "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General". The New York Times. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  34. ^ Zapotosky, Matt; Barrett, Devlin; Leonnig, Carol D. (January 23, 2021). "Trump entertained plan to install an attorney general who would help him pursue baseless election fraud claims". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  35. ^ Katie Benner (January 22, 2021). "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General". Forbes. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  36. ^ Kranish, Michael (June 14, 2022). "New details emerge of Oval Office confrontation three days before Jan. 6". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  37. ^ "Former Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel Rejoins Dechert". Dechert LLP (Press release). May 3, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  38. ^ "Steven Engel". Dechert LLP. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  39. ^ Thomas, David (May 3, 2017). "DOJ official who was eyed for SCOTUS by Trump returns to Dechert". Reuters. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
Legal offices
Preceded by United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
2017–2021 		Succeeded by
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