Mukasey, Michael Bernard (1941-…), served as United States attorney general from 2007 to 2009. President George W. Bush appointed him to the post to replace Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned. Prior to being named attorney general, Mukasey served as a federal judge and as a lawyer in private practice.
Mukasey was born on July 28, 1941, in the Bronx borough (district) of New York City. He received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1963 and a law degree from Yale Law School in 1967.
After graduation, Mukasey worked as a lawyer for a private firm. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York from 1972 to 1976, before returning to private practice. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Mukasey to a federal judgeship for the Southern District of New York. Mukasey served in the position from 1988 to 2006. As a judge, he presided over a number of terrorism-related cases, including the trial of a number of defendants accused of plotting to blow up the United Nations and other New York City landmarks in 1993.
Mukasey retired from the federal bench in 2006 and became a partner in a private law firm. Bush nominated him for attorney general in September 2007. Mukasey was confirmed by the U.S. Senate that November, and he served through the end of Bush’s presidency in January 2009. As attorney general, Mukasey addressed such issues as federal sentencing guidelines for drug offenders and the legality of certain interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects.
