Melanie Sloan
Encyclopedia
Melanie Sloan is the Executive Director
of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
, a nonprofit government watchdog group.
Sloan is a graduate of Wilmington Friends School.
.
Prior to starting CREW in 2003, Sloan served as an Assistant United States Attorney
in the District of Columbia where, from 1998 to 2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries. Before becoming a prosecutor, Sloan served as Minority Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, working on criminal justice issues for then-Ranking Member John Conyers
(D-MI). Sloan also served as Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by then-Representative Charles Schumer
(D-NY). There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act
. In 1993, Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE).
Sloan has published in the Yale Law & Policy Review
and numerous other publications.
's Democracy Now!
show, Air America's Al Franken Show, NPR's All Things Considered
and Morning Edition
, CNN's The Situation Room
, Larry King Live
and Lou Dobbs Tonight
, MSNBC's Hardball
, Countdown with Keith Olbermann
and The Rachel Maddow Show
, NBC Nightly News
, CBS Evening News
, and ABC World News Tonight. Sloan has been profiled in a number of publications including Ms. Magazine
, Time Magazine and Mother Jones
. In 2009, Sloan was featured in O Magazine's first-ever "O Power List" and was declared one of the "100 People Who Are Changing America" in Rolling Stone
. She also appeared in the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money
.
and his wife, retired CIA
officer Valerie Plame Wilson
, whose then-classified covert
identity was disclosed, leading to the CIA leak grand jury investigation
and the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in United States v. Libby
(see Plame affair
). Sloan is one of the attorneys representing the Wilsons in their civil lawsuit
against former and current officials of the George W. Bush administration (Plame v. Cheney
).
Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department has argued the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. On the current justice department position, Sloan, stated: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government’s position cannot be reconciled with President Obama’s oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
When Sloan was a guest on Hardball with Chris Matthews
in December 2006, she spoke openly about many details in the Libby trial. Following her appearance on the show, she drew a strong warning from Judge Reggie Walton
. Walton admonished Sloan and stated that "the Court would not tolerate this case being tried in the media."
columnist Justin Elliott criticized Sloan for accepting a position with Lanny Davis
' lobbying firm, a paid lobbyist of the for-profit education industry. In the summer of 2010, Sloan and CREW were highly critical of famed short-seller Steve Eisman
, writing letters to the congressional subcommittee, denouncing the fact that he had an adverse financial interest. This criticism was launched despite Eisman fully disclosing his interest prior to testifying. At the same time CREW ignored the financial interest of an industry executive who also testified. In the fall of 2010, Sloan announced she would be leaving CREW and accepting a position with Lanny Davis' firm. Sloan subsequently decided against joining Davis' firm and remains as the
Executive Director of CREW.
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a nonprofit 501 organization that describes itself as "dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials – regardless of party affiliation – who sacrifice the common good to...
, a nonprofit government watchdog group.
Early Life and Family
Sloan was born in Washington, D.C. to parents Lenoard S. Togman, who then worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Barbara Togman. However, Sloan grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, where her parents still reside. Her father is a lawyer "of counsel" (retired) with the law firm Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP.Sloan is a graduate of Wilmington Friends School.
Education and professional career
Sloan received her B.A. and J.D. from the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Prior to starting CREW in 2003, Sloan served as an Assistant 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...
in the District of Columbia where, from 1998 to 2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries. Before becoming a prosecutor, Sloan served as Minority Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, working on criminal justice issues for then-Ranking Member John Conyers
John Conyers
John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
(D-MI). Sloan also served as Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by then-Representative Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
(D-NY). There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is a United States federal law. It was passed as Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, , and signed as by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994...
. In 1993, Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE).
Sloan has published in the Yale Law & Policy Review
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
and numerous other publications.
Media appearances
Sloan frequently appears on national media to provide analysis and commentary. She has appeared on shows including Pacifica RadioPacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
's Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
show, Air America's Al Franken Show, NPR's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
and Morning Edition
Morning Edition
Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
, CNN's The Situation Room
The Situation Room
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer is an afternoon/early evening newscast on CNN and CNN International hosted by Wolf Blitzer that first aired on August 8, 2005. The show replaces three politics and hard news programs: Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics, Crossfire and Wolf Blitzer Reports.At first,...
, Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
and Lou Dobbs Tonight
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Lou Dobbs Tonight is an American editorial commentary and discussion program hosted by Lou Dobbs, previously broadcast on CNN and currently on Fox Business Network. The hour-long show aired live on evenings every weekday, and was replayed in the overnight/early morning hours. It covered the major...
, MSNBC's Hardball
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
, Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
and The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show (TV series)
The Rachel Maddow Show is a news and opinion television program that airs weeknights on MSNBC at 9:00 p.m. ET. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained popularity with her frequent appearances as a liberal pundit on various MSNBC programs. It is based on her former radio show of the same name...
, NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
, CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
, and ABC World News Tonight. Sloan has been profiled in a number of publications including Ms. Magazine
Ms. magazine
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
, Time Magazine and Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
. In 2009, Sloan was featured in O Magazine's first-ever "O Power List" and was declared one of the "100 People Who Are Changing America" in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. She also appeared in the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
Casino Jack and the United States of Money is a 2010 documentary film directed by Alex Gibney.-Synopsis:The film focuses on the career of Washington, D.C. lobbyist, businessman, and con man Jack Abramoff, who was involved in a massive corruption scandal that led to the conviction of himself, two...
.
Plame Wilson leak case
Sloan serves as legal counsel for former Ambassador Joseph C. WilsonJoseph C. Wilson
Joseph Charles Wilson IV is a former United States diplomat best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his New York Times op-ed piece, "What I Didn't Find in Africa"; and the subsequent "outing" of his wife...
and his wife, retired CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
officer Valerie Plame Wilson
Valerie Plame
Valerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer and the author of a memoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA.-Early life :Valerie Elise Plame was born on...
, whose then-classified covert
Non-official cover
Non-official cover is a term used in espionage, particularly by national intelligence services, for agents or operatives who assume covert roles in organizations without ties to the government for which they work. Such agents or operatives are typically abbreviated in espionage lingo as a NOC...
identity was disclosed, leading to the CIA leak grand jury investigation
CIA leak grand jury investigation
The CIA leak grand jury investigation was a federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a Central Intelligence Agency employee's identity," a possible violation of criminal statutes, including the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, and Title 18, United States Code,...
and the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in United States v. Libby
United States v. Libby
United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby" is the federal trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former high-ranking official in the George W. Bush administration....
(see Plame affair
Plame affair
The Plame Affair involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer. Mrs. Wilson's relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information...
). Sloan is one of the attorneys representing the Wilsons in their civil lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against former and current officials of the George W. Bush administration (Plame v. Cheney
Plame v. Cheney
Wilson v. Cheney, 498 F.Supp.2d 74, viz. Valerie Plame Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson IV, ..., Plaintiffs, v. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., Karl C. Rove, Richard B. Cheney, Richard L. Armitage and John Does Nos. 1–10, Defendants, is a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S...
).
Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department has argued the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. On the current justice department position, Sloan, stated: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government’s position cannot be reconciled with President Obama’s oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
When Sloan was a guest on Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
in December 2006, she spoke openly about many details in the Libby trial. Following her appearance on the show, she drew a strong warning from Judge Reggie Walton
Reggie Walton
Reggie Barnett Walton is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.-Early life and education :...
. Walton admonished Sloan and stated that "the Court would not tolerate this case being tried in the media."
Criticisms
SalonSalon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
columnist Justin Elliott criticized Sloan for accepting a position with Lanny Davis
Lanny Davis
Lanny J. Davis is an American lawyer and lobbyist. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton.-Background:...
' lobbying firm, a paid lobbyist of the for-profit education industry. In the summer of 2010, Sloan and CREW were highly critical of famed short-seller Steve Eisman
Steve Eisman
Steve Eisman is a money manager famous for shorting securitized subprime home mortgages. Eisman currently works for FrontPoint Partners, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley.-FrontPoint Partners:...
, writing letters to the congressional subcommittee, denouncing the fact that he had an adverse financial interest. This criticism was launched despite Eisman fully disclosing his interest prior to testifying. At the same time CREW ignored the financial interest of an industry executive who also testified. In the fall of 2010, Sloan announced she would be leaving CREW and accepting a position with Lanny Davis' firm. Sloan subsequently decided against joining Davis' firm and remains as the
Executive Director of CREW.
External links
- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
- Short biography from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in WashingtonCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in WashingtonCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a nonprofit 501 organization that describes itself as "dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials – regardless of party affiliation – who sacrifice the common good to...
web site - Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust.