Janet Reno | |
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Official portrait, c. 1990s | |
78th United States Attorney General | |
In office March 12, 1993 – January 20, 2001 | |
President | Bill Clinton |
William Barr | |
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President | George H. W. Bush |
Preceded by | Donald B. Ayer |
Succeeded by | George J. Terwilliger III |
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel |
Matthew Whitaker | |
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Preceded by | Jeff Sessions |
Succeeded by | William Barr |
Chief of Staff to the United States Attorney General | |
In office September 22, 2017 – November 7, 2018 |
Attorney General | Years of service |
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Merrick Garland | 2021-Present |
Loretta Lynch | 2015-2017 |
Eric Holder | 2009-2015 |
Michael B. Mukasey | 2007-2009 |
Reno was also in charge during the Justice Department's prosecution of several high-profile cases including the convictions of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for their deadly bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; and Ted Kaczynski, who became known as the “Unabomber” for a 17-year domestic terrorist campaign of mailing letter bombs.
In early 1993, cult leader David Koresh and his followers, known as the Branch Davidians, ended up in a 51-day standoff with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Reno was called upon to help resolve the situation.
After attending Cornell University for her undergraduate degree and Harvard Law School in 1960, Janet Reno worked as an attorney in Florida for several years. Her work in Florida as an attorney and as county prosecutor from 1978 to 1993 established Reno's stern and liberal reputation.
Early Life and Career. Janet Reno was born in Miami, Florida on July 21, 1938. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1960, she attended Harvard Law School. Reno graduated in 1963 and returned to her native Florida. After several years in private practice, Reno ran for county prosecutor for Dade County in ...
After leaving the post in 2001, Reno returned to Florida. She ran for governor in 2002, but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Since then, Reno largely stayed out of public life. She did, however, testify before the federal 9/11 commission in 2004 and voice her opposition to some of the nation’s anti-terrorism policies through a legal brief in 2006.
Janet Jackson, the youngest sibling in the musical Jackson family, is one of the best-selling artists in contemporary history. Her roster of albums includes 'Control,' 'Rhythm Nation 1814,' 'The Velvet Rope' and 'Unbreakable.'
Despite this controversy, Reno became one of the most respected members of the Clinton administration in its first term, known for launching innovative programs designed to steer non-violent drug offenders away from jail and espousing the rights of criminal defendants.
On September 17, President Bush announced that Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ Civil Division Peter Keisler would become acting attorney general, pending a permanent appointment of a presidential nominee.
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government .The Attorney General is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government.
The capture and conviction of high-profile terrorists. Reno oversaw the convictions of numerous high-profile bombers, including Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing.
During her 15 years as prosecutor in Miami’s Dade County, where voters returned her to the office five times, Reno gained plenty of experience on cases with national implications, including on narcotics, immigration and corruption. The Ivy League law graduate also had a reputation as an innovator who introduced a special court for drug offenders that mixed punishment with treatment.
Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General of the United States, who served for eight years after being nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has died at the age of 78 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Here, six milestones in the no-frills lawyer’s legacy:
In early 2000, Reno attempted to negotiate the highly-politicized return of five-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. The boy was discovered lashed to an inner tube off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, after he and his mother, Elizabet, fled their Cuban town of Cardenas.
Being played by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live. Reno was memorably played by Will Ferrell in a recurring Saturday Night Live skit called ‘Janet Reno’s Dance Party’. “I originally wanted to do this thing where she was almost like a bodyguard for President Clinton,” Ferrell told the Washington Post in 1998.
Shortly after she was sworn into the role of Attorney General, Reno became embroiled in controversy over the deadly raid she ordered following a standoff between the Branch Davidians, a religious sect, and federal agents at the sect’s compound near Waco, Texas.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Reno to serve as the United States Attorney General. Both of his previous choices, Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, faced problems because both had employed undocumented immigrants as nannies.
Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001. President Bill Clinton nominated Reno on February 11, 1993, and the Senate confirmed her the following month. She was the first woman to serve as Attorney General and the second-longest serving ...
Janet Reno. Not to be confused with Ginette Reno. Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001. President Bill Clinton nominated Reno on February 11, 1993, and the Senate confirmed her the following month.
Reno was born in Miami, Florida. Reno's mother, Jane Wallace (née Wood), wrote a weekly home improvement column for The Miami News under a male pseudonym and later became an investigative reporter for the paper. Janet's father, Henry Olaf Reno (né Rasmussen), was an emigrant from Denmark and a reporter for the Miami Herald for 43 years. Janet Reno had three younger siblings: Mark; writer Robert Reno; and Maggy Hurchalla. In 1943, the Reno family moved to a house in rural South Miami; it came with enough land to keep farm animals, including cows, chicken, ducks, goats, and turkeys. Reno helped her parents churn butter, which the family sold to make ends meet.
Janet's father, Henry Olaf Reno (né Rasmussen), was an emigrant from Denmark and a reporter for the Miami Herald for 43 years. Janet Reno had three younger siblings: Mark; writer Robert Reno; and Maggy Hurchalla.
After graduating from Cornell, Reno enrolled at Harvard Law School, one of 16 women in a class of 500 students. She graduated from Harvard in 1963.
From 1963 to 1971 Reno worked as an attorney for two Miami law firms. In 1971, she joined the staff of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House of Representatives. The following year, Reno unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Florida's state house. In 1973, she worked on a project to revise the state's system of rules and regulations for criminal procedures. Later in the same year, she accepted a position with the Dade County State Attorney's Office led by Richard Gerstein. Shortly after joining the office, Gerstein made Reno his chief assistant. Reno did not try any cases during her time working for Gerstein. She worked for the Judiciary Circuit, and left the state attorney's office in 1976 to become a partner in a private law firm, Steel, Hector & Davis. Gerstein decided to retire in 1977, creating a vacancy with Florida governor Reubin Askew to appoint a successor. Reno was one of two candidates Gerstein recommended to replace him.
In May 1990 , Barr was appointed Deputy Attorney General, the official responsible for day-to-day management of the Department. According to media reports, Barr was generally praised for his professional management of the Department.
Upon leaving the DOJ in 1993, Barr was appointed by Virginia Governor George Allen to co-chair a commission to implement tougher criminal justice policies and abolish parole in the state. Barr has been described as a "leader of the parole-abolition campaign" in Virginia.
Early life and education. Barr was born in New York City in 1950. His father, Donald Barr, taught English literature at Columbia University before becoming headmaster of the Dalton School in Manhattan and later the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, both members of the Ivy Preparatory School League.
Barr's mother, Mary Margaret ( née Ahern), also taught at Columbia. Barr's father was Jewish and raised in Judaism but later converted to Christianity and joined the Catholic Church. His mother is of Irish ancestry. Barr was raised as a Catholic. Barr was the second of four sons, and his younger brother Stephen Barr is a professor of physics at the University of Delaware.
His father, Donald Barr, taught English literature at Columbia University before becoming headmaster of the Dalton School in Manhattan and later the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, both members of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Barr's mother, Mary Margaret ( née Ahern), also taught at Columbia.
During his first tenure as AG, media characterized Barr as "a staunch conservative who rarely hesitates to put his hardline views into action". He was described as affable with a dry, self-deprecating wit. The New York Times described the "central theme" of his tenure to be "his contention that violent crime can be reduced only by expanding Federal and state prisons to jail habitual violent offenders". In an effort to prioritize violent crime, Barr reassigned three hundred FBI agents from counterintelligence work to investigations of gang violence. The New York Times called this move "the largest single manpower shift in the bureau's history".
The Case for More Incarceration. In 1992, Barr authored a report, The Case for More Incarceration, which argued for an increase in the United States incarceration rate, the creation of a national program to construct more prisons, and the abolition of parole release.
In May 2011, House Oversight Committee chairman, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent Attorney General Holder a letter requesting details about Operation Fast and Furious, which had been a failed federal firearms sting operation that allegedly allowed some 2,000 weapons to reach Mexican drug gangs. Grassley and Issa urged Holder to cooperate and turn over subpoenaed records that would reveal the scope of the alleged government coverup.
After graduating from Columbia Law School, Holder joined the U.S. Justice Department 's new Public Integrity Section, where he worked from 1976 to 1988. During his time there, he assisted in the prosecution of Democratic Congressman John Jenrette for bribery discovered in the Abscam sting operation. In 1988, Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Early life and education. Eric Himpton Holder Jr. was born in The Bronx, New York, to parents with roots in Barbados. Holder's father, Eric Himpton Holder Sr. (October 29, 1903 – February 12, 1998), was born in Saint Joseph, Barbados, and arrived in the United States at the age of 11. He later became a real estate broker.
Holder stepped down from the bench in 1993 to accept an appointment as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from President Bill Clinton. He was the first Black American U.S. Attorney in that office.
would continue to support the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Holder also vowed to work closer with African officials to stop terrorism, and announced that the FBI would be providing a team of forensic specialists to help assist in the investigation of the terrorist bombings in Kampala during the World Cup.
He said that he feared that the law could lead to racial profiling. Holder received criticism on the political right for criticizing the law before he had read it in its entirety.
Under Holder's leadership, the Department of Justice brought six leak-related prosecutions against current or former U.S. government employees, while all previous Presidential administrations combined had tried a total of three such cases. Holder was reportedly "surprised" by news reports pointing out this statistic, and was said to have told associates that he did not wish to have leak prosecutions be his legacy. Several prominent leak prosecutions under Holder involved communications between criminal defendants and journalists, and the pervasive use of traceable electronic communications between journalists and their sources provided the prosecution with a tool to determine the potential origin of published information. Under Holder, the Justice Department argued that journalists had no legal protection to maintain the confidentiality of their sources, and can be compelled by the government to reveal them, or potentially face criminal contempt charges. On September 17, 2018, the Freedom of the Press Foundation obtained documents regarding the use of FISA courts to spy on journalists.