Lanny Breuer is an American lawyer and the Assistant Attorney General

United States Assistant Attorney General

Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an Assistant Attorney General.The President of the United States appoints individuals to the position of Assistant Attorney General with the advice and consent of the Senate...

 for the Criminal Division

United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division develops, enforces, and supervises the application of all federal criminal laws in the United States, except those specifically assigned to other divisions. Criminal Division attorneys prosecute many nationally significant cases and formulate and...

 of the U.S. 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...

.

After graduating from Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

, Breuer was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1985 to 1989. As a special White House counsel, he helped represent President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 from 1997 to 1999 during independent-counsel and Congressional investigations, and the impeachment hearings.

Prior to becoming Assistant Attorney General, Breuer was a partner in the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling

Covington & Burling

Covington & Burling LLP is an international law firm with offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Washington, DC. The firm advises multinational corporations on significant transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters...

 and the co-chairman of its white-collar defense and investigations practice group. Breuer was best known for his work representing the subjects of Congressional investigations. He represented the University of California in an investigation of Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...

, Moody’s Investor Service in the wake of Enron

Enron

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...

’s collapse, and Halliburton/KBR in a hearing conducted by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Breuer made headlines when a friend from the White House, Sandy Berger, asked for representation after an investigation disclosed Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives.

On January 22, 2009, President Obama selected Breuer to head the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. He was confirmed by the Senate on April 20, 2009 by a vote of 88-0.

Lanny Breuer was in his position during the prosecution of Thomas Andrews Drake

Thomas Andrews Drake

Thomas Andrews Drake is a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Agency , decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist, and whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that he 'mishandled'...

, an NSA whistleblower indicted in 2010 under the Espionage Act of 1917

Espionage Act of 1917

The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...

 for 'retaining' 'national defense information'. Investigative reporter Jane Mayer

Jane Mayer

Jane Mayer is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1995...

wrote of the case as follows:

"Because reporters often retain unauthorized defense documents, Drake’s conviction would establish a legal precedent making it possible to prosecute journalists as spies."