Kenneth Leonard Wainstein (born 1962) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer
and former Assistant Attorney General for national security.

Education

Wainstein is a graduate of the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 and earned his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Career

Wainstein worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, as General Counsel and as Chief of Staff to the FBI Director. He was United States Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 for the District of Columbia.

On September 26, 2006, he was sworn in as the Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

's Assistant Attorney General responsible for National Security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

.

Wainstein was appointed Homeland Security Advisor by President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 on March 30, 2008. He was also Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council

Homeland Security Council

The Homeland Security Council is an entity within the White House Office tasked with advising the President on matters relating to Homeland Security...

. He was appointed as the "National Continuity Coordinator" under the auspices of National Security Presidential Directive 51