News / People
Michael Chertoff Expected to Replace Alberto Gonzales
As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigns today, there is much speculation over who will be his replacement. It is expected that President George W. Bush will nominate Homeland Security Advisor Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff has been secretary of Homeland Security since February 2005.
Before that he was an assistant attorney general who helped trace the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to al Qaeda, according to his biography on the White House Web site.
Chertoff received his law degree from Harvard University and was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William H. Brennan Jr. in 1979 and 1980. He first stepped into a prosecutorial role as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1987.
From there, he moved to the District of New Jersey and was assistant U.S. attorney from 1987 to 1990 and U.S. attorney until 1994.
Between 1994 and 1996, Chertoff was counsel to the GOP Whitewater committee investigating the business dealings of President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton, who is now New York's junior senator and a candidate for president of the United States.
The Whitewater investigation eventually led to Clinton's impeachment in the House of Representatives, but the bid to remove him from office failed in the Senate.
