Michael Chertoff

His father was Rabbi Gershon Baruch Chertoff (1915–96), a Talmud scholar and the former leader of the Congregation B'nai Israel in Elizabeth.

His mother was Livia Chertoff (née Eisen), she was a naturalized American citizen after having held status under a British mandate and was the first flight attendant for El Al.

His paternal grandparents are Rabbi Paul Chertoff and Esther Barish Chertoff.

Chertoff attended the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth as well as the Pingry School.

Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) is an American-Israeli attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security to serve under President George W. Bush.

Chertoff also served for one additional day under President Barack Obama.

He was the co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Chertoff previously served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as Assistant U.S. Attorney General.

Michael Chertoff was born on November 28, 1953, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975.

During his sophomore year, he studied abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He then attended Harvard Law School, where he worked as a research assistant for John Hart Ely on his book Democracy and Distrust. Chertoff received a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1978.

Following his law school graduation, Chertoff served as a law clerk to Judge Murray Gurfein of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and later for United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. from 1979 to 1980.

Chertoff worked in private practice with Latham & Watkins from 1980 to 1983 before being hired as a prosecutor by Rudolph Giuliani, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Chertoff worked on Mafia and political corruption–related cases.

In September 1986, together with United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani, Chertoff was instrumental in the crackdown on organized crime in the Mafia Commission Trial.

In the mid-1990s, Chertoff returned to Latham & Watkins for a brief period, founding the firm's office in Newark, New Jersey.

In 1990, Chertoff was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Among his most important cases, in 1992 Chertoff achieved conviction of second-term Jersey City mayor Gerald McCann on charges of defrauding money from a savings and loan scam.

McCann served two years in federal prison.

In 1993, he was a prosecutor in the fraud case against Eddie Antar, founder of the Crazy Eddie electronics store chain.

Chertoff was asked to stay in his position when the Clinton administration took office in 1993, at the request of Democratic Senator Bill Bradley.

He was the only United States Attorney who was not replaced due to the change in administrations.

He continued to work with the U.S. Attorney's office until 1994, when he entered private practice, returning to Latham & Watkins as a partner.

Despite his friendly relationship with some Democrats, Chertoff was appointed as the special counsel for the Senate Whitewater Committee studying allegations against President Clinton and his wife in what was known as the Whitewater investigation.

No charges were brought against the Clintons.

In 2000, Chertoff worked as special counsel to the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee, investigating racial profiling in New Jersey.

He also did some fundraising for George W. Bush and other Republicans during the 2000 election cycle.

He advised Bush's presidential campaign on criminal justice issues.

Chertoff was appointed by Bush to head the criminal division of the Department of Justice, serving from 2001 to 2003.

In 2002 and 2003, Chertoff provided legal advice to the CIA on the use of coercive interrogation methods against terror suspects such as Abu Zubaydah.

Chertoff also led the prosecution's case against accounting firm Arthur Andersen for destroying documents relating to the Enron collapse.

The prosecution of Arthur Andersen was controversial, as the firm was effectively dissolved, resulting in the loss of 26,000 jobs.

The United States Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the case has not been retried.

He succeeded Tom Ridge as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security on February 15, 2005.

Since leaving government service, Chertoff has worked as senior of counsel at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling.

He also co-founded the Chertoff Group, a risk-management and security consulting company.

He is also the chair and a member of the board of trustees in the international freedom watchdog Freedom House, and sits on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center.

Chertoff was the senior Justice Department official on duty at the F.B.I. command center right after the September 11th attacks.

He led the federal prosecution's case against suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui.