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Steven Engel

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

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 first 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]

Steve Engel
Official portrait, 2018
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
Spouse
Susan Kearns
​
(m. 2004)​
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of Cambridge (MPhil)
Yale University (JD)

Early life and education

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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. He then earned a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1996.[1][5]

From 1996 to 1997, Engel was a Knox Fellow at the University of Cambridge.[1][6][7] He attended Yale Law School afterwards and earned a Juris Doctor in 2000.[1] He then clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, followed by a clerkship under Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.[1][8][3]

Career

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Engel practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis from 2002 to 2006[1] before serving as deputy assistant attorney general at the Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration from 2006 to 2009.[1] In June 2009, Engel became a partner at Dechert, an international law firm.[6][5][3]

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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."[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

In November 2017, Engel issued an opinion supporting the President's appointment of Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Vacancies Reform Act.[13]

In April 2018, Engel approved airstrikes launched by President Trump against facilities associated with Syria's chemical-weapons program without congressional authorization.[14]

 
The March 24, 2019 Office of Legal Counsel memo.

In March 2019, the special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller released its findings, the Mueller report, to Attorney General William Barr. Barr tasked the Office of Legal Counsel with authoring a memorandum that would justify the decision Barr had already made to clear Trump on the charges of obstruction of justice.[15][16][17] This memorandum was written in tandem with the Barr letter over the course of two days;[18] the final version was signed by Engel and Ed O'Callaghan.[16][17][19][20] The DOJ initially kept the memo secret.[20] The watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington launched a Freedom of Information Act suit against the Justice Department, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in August 2022, ordered the memo's public release.[17] The D.C. Circuit held that the memo was not shielded from disclosure by the deliberative process privilege, because then-Attorney General Barr had already determined, by the time the memo was written, that DOJ would not charge Trump with a crime, making the memo akin to a "thought experiment."[17]

In May 2019, Engel issued an opinion concluding that the former White House Counsel, Don McGahn, was immune from compelled congressional testimony.[21] 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.[22]

In June 2019, Engel issued an OLC opinion supporting the Justice Department's decision not to release Donald Trump's tax returns.[23]

In September 2019, Engel authored the OLC opinion[24][25] of the Justice Department to not forward the Trump–Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint[26] 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.[27][28][29] 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.[30]

 
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.[31][32][33]

On September 9, 2020, President Donald Trump identified Engel among a list of potential future nominees to the Supreme Court.[34]

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 Clark in an effort to overturn the election.[35][36][37][38][39][40] 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

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In May 2021, Dechert LLP announced that Engel had rejoined their law firm as a partner.[41][42][43]

Personal life

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Engel married Susan Kearns in 2004. They met while working as co-clerks to Judge Kozinski, and both served as clerks on the Supreme Court during the 2001 term, with Kearns clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia.[44]

See also

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References

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  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. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 10, 2020. 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. Archived from the original on February 28, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Groups Express Concern over US Office of Legal Counsel Nominee". hrw.org. Human Rights Watch. June 7, 2017. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  11. ^ "Grassley: Engel Well-Equipped to Lead Office of Legal Counsel". Committee on the Judiciary. November 7, 2017. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  12. ^ "U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 115th Congress – 1st Session". www.senate.gov. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  13. ^ Phil Helsel (November 25, 2017). "Justice Department says Trump can appoint head of consumer watchdog". NBC News. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  14. ^ Charlie Savage (June 1, 2018). "Trump Had Power to Attack Syria Without Congress, Justice Dept. Memo Says". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  15. ^ Chaitin, Daniel (August 24, 2022). "DOJ releases memo advising Barr on not pursuing Trump obstruction charges". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on September 2, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022. 'The court's ... review of the memorandum revealed that the Department in fact never considered bringing a charge,' the panel wrote in its opinion. 'Instead, the memorandum concerned a separate decision that had gone entirely unmentioned by the government in its submissions to the court — what, if anything, to say to Congress and the public about the Mueller Report.' The panel added: 'We affirm the district court.'
  16. ^ a b Mallin, Alexander (August 24, 2022). "DOJ releases memo behind Barr's decision not to prosecute Trump for obstruction". ABC News. Archived from the original on September 4, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022. DOJ officials previously told the court that the memo should be kept from the public because it involved internal department deliberations and the advice given to Barr about whether Trump should face prosecution. But a district judge ruled that Barr was never engaged in such a process and had already made up his mind to not charge Trump.
  17. ^ a b c d Gerstein, Josh; Cheney, Kyle (August 19, 2022). "Appeals court backs ruling to release DOJ memo on Trump prosecution". Politico. Archived from the original on September 1, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2022. Srinivasan said the memo, co-authored by Assistant Attorney General for Legal Counsel Steven Engel and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan, seemed more like a "thought experiment" because Barr decided before the memo was written that Trump would not be charged with a crime.
  18. ^ Tucker, Eric (May 5, 2021). "Judge orders Justice Dept. To release Trump obstruction memo". Associated Press. Archived from the original on August 29, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022. In her order, Jackson noted that the memo prepared for Barr, and the letter from Barr to Congress that describes the special counsel's report, are 'being written by the very same people at the very same time. The emails show not only that the authors and the recipients of the memorandum are working hand in hand to craft the advice that is supposedly being delivered by OLC, but that the letter to Congress is the priority, and it is getting completed first,' the judge wrote.
  19. ^ Engel, Steven A.; O'Callaghan, Edward C. (March 24, 2019). "Memorandum for the Attorney General: Review of the Special Counsel's Report" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 25, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2022 – via Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
  20. ^ a b Lucas, Ryan (August 24, 2022). "DOJ releases a Mueller-era memo to Barr on the decision not to prosecute Trump". NPR. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  21. ^ "Testimonial Immunity Before Congress of the Former Counsel to the President". Justice.gov. May 20, 2019. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  22. ^ Ann E. Marimow (April 23, 2021). "Court delays House lawsuit seeking to enforce Donald McGahn subpoena". Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  23. ^ Rappeport, Alan (June 14, 2019). "Justice Dept. Backs Mnuchin's Refusal to Release Trump's Tax Returns". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  24. ^ "'Urgent Concern' Determination by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community". justice.gov. September 3, 2019. Archived from the original on September 30, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  25. ^ Savage, Charlie; Schmidt, Michael S.; Barnes, Julian E. (September 25, 2019). "Whistle-Blower Is Said to Allege Concerns About White House Handling of Ukraine Call". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  26. ^ "Unclassified Whistleblower Complaint" (PDF). August 12, 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 18, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  27. ^ Volz, Dustin (October 25, 2019). "U.S. Watchdog Council Says Justice Department Erred in Blocking Whistleblower Complaint". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  28. ^ Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (October 22, 2019). "Letter to Steven A. Engel" (PDF). ignet.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  29. ^ Naham, Matt (October 25, 2019). "IG Handling FISA Probe, Others Blast OLC for Concluding Whistleblower Complaint Wasn't 'Urgent Concern'". lawandcrime.com. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  30. ^ "Office of the Assistant Attorney General" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. October 25, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  31. ^ Becket, Stefan; Hymes, Clare; Legare, Jon (November 12, 2019). "Mulvaney will defer to Trump and will not testify in impeachment hearings". CBS News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  32. ^ Reid, Paula (November 4, 2019). "Committees release first transcripts in Trump impeachment inquiry". CBS News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  33. ^ Cook, Nancy (November 4, 2019). "Trump's latest legal strategy on impeachment: Run out the clock". Politico. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  34. ^ Seung Min Kim; Ann E. Marimow (September 9, 2020). "Trump announces more possible Supreme Court nominees". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  35. ^ McQuade, Barbara (October 12, 2021). "Trump's DOJ officials stopped his January election scheme. But they're not heroes". MSNBC. Archived from the original on October 12, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  36. ^ Buchman, Brandi (July 30, 2021). "Notes show how hard Trump leaned on DOJ to label election corrupt". courthousenews.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  37. ^ Benner, Katie (January 23, 2021). "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  38. ^ 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. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  39. ^ Katie Benner (January 22, 2021). "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  40. ^ Kranish, Michael (June 14, 2022). "New details emerge of Oval Office confrontation three days before Jan. 6". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  41. ^ "Former Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel Rejoins Dechert". Dechert LLP (Press release). May 3, 2021. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  42. ^ "Steven Engel". Dechert LLP. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  43. ^ Thomas, David (May 3, 2017). "DOJ official who was eyed for SCOTUS by Trump returns to Dechert". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  44. ^ "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Susan Kearns, Steven Engel". The New York Times. June 13, 2004. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
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Legal offices
Preceded by United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
2017–2021 		Succeeded by
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