This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2008)

Michael Chertoff
2nd Secretary of Homeland Security
In office February 15, 2005 – January 21, 2009
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Tom Ridge
Succeeded by	Janet Napolitano
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
In office June 10, 2003 – February 15, 2005
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Morton Greenberg
Succeeded by	Michael Chagares
United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey
In office 1990–1994
Appointed by	George H. W. Bush
Preceded by	Samuel Alito
Succeeded by	Faith Hochberg
Personal details
Born	(1953-11-28) November 28, 1953 (age 58) Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Meryl Chertoff
Children	2
Alma mater	Harvard University

Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act. He previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as assistant U.S. Attorney General. He succeeded Tom Ridge as United States Secretary of Homeland Security on February 15, 2005.

Since leaving government service, Chertoff has worked as Senior Of Counsel at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling.^[1] He also co-founded the Chertoff Group, a risk management and security consulting company, which employs several senior officials from his time as Secretary of Homeland Security as well as Michael Hayden, a former Director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.^[2]

Chertoff is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. ^[3]

Early life[link]

Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Rabbi Gershon Baruch Chertoff (1915–1996), the former leader of the Congregation B'nai Israel in Elizabeth and Talmud scholar, and Livia Chertoff (née Eisen), El Al flight attendant. His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Paul Chertoff (emigrated with his parents from czarist Russia, present day Belarus) was a noted Talmud scholar.^[4]

Chertoff went to the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth as well as the Pingry School. He later attended Harvard College, where he was a research assistant on John Hart Ely's book Democracy and Distrust, graduating in 1975 and then spending one year at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. He then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1978, going on to clerk for appellate judge Murray Gurfein for a year before clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice William Brennan from 1979 to 1980. He worked in private practice with Latham & Watkins from 1980 to 1983 before being hired as a prosecutor by Rudolph Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, working on Mafia and political corruption-related cases. In the mid 1990s, Chertoff returned to Latham & Watkins for a brief period, founding the firm's office in Newark, New Jersey.

Government Employment[link]

In September 1986, together with U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani, Chertoff was instrumental in the crackdown on organized crime in the Mafia Commission Trial.

In 1990, Chertoff was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.^[5] Among his most important cases, in 1992 Chertoff put second-term Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann in federal prison for over two years on charges of defrauding money from a savings and loan scam. Chertoff was asked to stay in his position when the Clinton administration took office in 1993, at the request of Democratic Senator Bill Bradley.^[6] He was the only U.S. attorney not replaced and stayed with the U.S. Attorney's office until 1994, when he entered private practice, returning to Latham & Watkins as a partner.^[6]

Despite his friendly relationship with some Democrats, Chertoff took an active role in the Whitewater investigation against Bill and Hillary Clinton, serving as the special counsel for the Senate Whitewater Committee studying allegations against the Clintons.

In 2000, Chertoff worked as special counsel to the New Jersey State Senate Judiciary Committee, investigating racial profiling in New Jersey. He also did some fundraising for George W. Bush^{[citation needed]} and other Republicans^{[citation needed]} during the 2000 election cycle and advised Bush's presidential campaign on criminal justice issues. From 2001 to 2003, he headed the criminal division of the Department of Justice, leading the prosecution's case against terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

Chertoff also led the prosecution's case against accounting firm Arthur Andersen for destroying documents relating to the Enron collapse. The prosecution of Arthur Andersen was controversial, as the firm was effectively dissolved, resulting in the loss of 26,000 jobs. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the case has not been retried. At the Department of Justice, he also came under fire as one of the chief architects of the Bush administration's legal strategies in the War on Terror,^{[citation needed]} particularly regarding the detention of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants.^{[citation needed]}

On March 5, 2003, Chertoff was nominated by President Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by Morton I. Greenberg. Hillary Clinton (then a Senator from New York) cast the lone dissenting vote against Chertoff's confirmation. He was confirmed by the Senate 88-1 on June 9, 2003, and received his commission the following day. Mrs. Clinton explained that her vote was in protest of the way junior White House staffers were "very badly treated" by Chertoff's staff during the Whitewater investigation.^[7]

Secretary of Homeland Security[link]

In late 2004, Bernard Kerik was forced to decline President Bush's offer to replace Tom Ridge, the outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security. After a lengthy search to find a suitable replacement, Bush nominated Chertoff to the post in January 2005, citing his experience with post-9/11 terror legislation. He was unanimously approved for the position by the United States Senate on February 15, 2005.^[8]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, most of the criticism was directed toward the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but DHS was criticized as well for its lack of preparation.^[9]

Chertoff was the Bush administration's point man for pushing the comprehensive immigration reform bill, a measure that stalled in the Senate in June 2007.^[10]

Chertoff was asked by the Obama administration to stay in his post until 9 a.m. on January 21, 2009 (one day after President Obama's inauguration), "to ensure a smooth transition".^[11]

Views[link]

Construction of border fence[link]

In April 2008, Chertoff was criticized in a New York Times editorial for waiving the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and other environmental protection legislation to construct a 700-mile (1,100 km) fence along the Mexico–United States border. The Times wrote: "To the long list of things the Bush administration is willing to trash in its rush to appease immigration hard-liners, you can now add dozens of important environmental laws and hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat on the southern border."^[12]

According to New York Times columnist Adam Liptak, Chertoff had excluded the Department of Homeland Security from having to follow laws "protecting the environment, endangered species, migratory birds, the bald eagle, antiquities, farms, deserts, forests, Native American graves and religious freedom."^[13]

A report issued by the Congressional Research Service, the non-partisan research division of the Library of Congress, said that the unchecked delegation of powers to Chertoff was unprecedented: "After a review of federal law, primarily through electronic database searches and consultations with various CRS experts, we were unable to locate a waiver provision identical to that of §102 of H.R. 418—i.e., a provision that contains 'notwithstanding' language, provides a secretary of an executive agency the authority to waive all laws such secretary determines necessary, and directs the secretary to waive such laws."^[14]

Actions regarding illegal immigration[link]

In September 2007, Chertoff told a House committee that the DHS would not tolerate interference by sanctuary cities that would block the "Basic Pilot Program", which requires some types of employers to validate the legal status of their workers.^[15] He said that the DHS is exploring its legal options and intends to take action to prevent any interference with the law.^[16]

In 2008 it became public that the housekeeping company Chertoff had hired to clean his house employed illegal immigrants.^[17][18][19]

Globalization[link]

At the Global Creative Leadership Summit in 2009, Chertoff described globalization as a double-edged sword. Although globalization may help raise the standard of living for people around the world, Chertoff claims that it can also enable terrorists and transnational criminals.^[20]

Body Scanners[link]

Michael Chertoff has been an advocate of enhanced technologies, such as full body scanners.^[21] His consulting firm Chertoff Group (founded 2009) represents manufacturers of the scanners. ^{[22] [23]}

References[link]

• Michael Chertoff at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

v t e United States Secretaries of Homeland Security Ridge Chertoff Napolitano

v t e Cabinet of President George W. Bush (2001–2009)   Cabinet Secretary of State Colin Powell (2001–2005) Condoleezza Rice (2005–2009) Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill (2001–2002) John W. Snow (2003–2006) Henry Paulson (2006–2009) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (2001–2006) Robert Gates (2006–2009) Attorney General John Ashcroft (2001–2005) Alberto Gonzales (2005–2007) Michael Mukasey (2007–2009) Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (2001–2006) Dirk Kempthorne (2006–2009) Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman (2001–2005) Mike Johanns (2005–2007) Ed Schafer (2008–2009) Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans (2001–2005) Carlos Gutierrez (2005–2009) Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao (2001–2009) Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson (2001–2005) Mike Leavitt (2005–2009) Secretary of Education Rod Paige (2001–2005) Margaret Spellings (2005–2009) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez (2001–2003) Alphonso Jackson (2003–2008) Steve Preston (2008–2009) Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta (2001–2006) Mary Peters (2006–2009) Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham (2001–2005) Samuel Bodman (2005–2009) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi (2001–2005) Jim Nicholson (2005–2007) James Peake (2007–2009) Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (2003–2005) Michael Chertoff (2005–2009)   Cabinet-level Vice President Dick Cheney (2001–2009) White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (2001–2006) Joshua Bolten (2006–2009) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman (2001–2003) Mike Leavitt (2003–2005) Stephen L. Johnson (2005–2009) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mitch Daniels (2001–2003) Joshua Bolten (2003–2006) Rob Portman (2006–2007) Jim Nussle (2007–2009) Director of National Drug Control Policy John P. Walters (2001–2009) Trade Representative Robert Zoellick (2001–2005) Rob Portman (2005–2006) Susan Schwab (2006–2009)

Wolf Blitzer
Blitzer at Democratic Party presidential primary debate in Los Angeles, California, January 31, 2008
Born	Wolf Isaac Blitzer (1948-03-22) March 22, 1948 (age 64) Augsburg, Germany
Education	University at Buffalo (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA)
Occupation	Journalist
Years active	1972–present
Title	CNN The Situation Room anchor
Religion	Jewish[1]
Website
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/blitzer.wolf.html

Wolf Isaac Blitzer (born March 22, 1948) is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009. Blitzer previously hosted Wolf Blitzer Reports, which was replaced by The Situation Room.

Early life[link]

The son of Jewish refugees from Poland,^[2] Wolf Blitzer was born in Augsburg, Germany^[3][4] and raised in Buffalo, New York. Blitzer graduated from Kenmore West Senior High School and received a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University at Buffalo in 1970. While there, he was a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi. In 1972, he received a Master of Arts in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. While at Johns Hopkins, Blitzer studied abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he learned Hebrew.^[5]

Name[link]

Blitzer has said that he has frequently been asked about his name, which has been characterized as seemingly "made-for-TV".^[6] In a Wayne's World Saturday Night Live sketch which was aired during the Persian Gulf War, Wayne and Garth picked Blitzer as having the "worst name" of any war correspondent, with Garth remarking, "It's so obvious the guy made it up for the war!" ^[7] Blitzer explains that his surname goes back for generations, and his first name, 'Wolf', is the same first name as his maternal grandfather.

In writing for several Israeli newspapers in Washington, Blitzer has used the names Zev Blitzer and Zev Barak.^[8] Zev (זאב) is the Hebrew word for "wolf".

Career[link]

Washington and Jerusalem[link]

Blitzer began his career in journalism in the early 1970s in the Tel Aviv bureau of the Reuters news agency. In 1973 he caught the eye of Jerusalem Post editor Ari Rath, who hired Blitzer as a Washington correspondent for the English language Israeli newspaper. Blitzer would remain with the Jerusalem Post until 1990, covering both American politics and developments in the Middle East.^[9]

In the mid-1970s, Blitzer also contributed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the editor of their monthly publication, the Near East Report.^[10][11] While at AIPAC, Blitzer's writing focused on Middle East affairs as they relate to United States foreign policy.

At an April 1977 White House press conference, Blitzer asked Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat why Egyptian scholars, athletes and journalists were not permitted to visit Israel. Sadat, somewhat taken aback, responded that such visits would be possible after an end to the state of belligerence between the two nations. This was Sadat's first public acknowledgment that peace between Egypt and Israel was possible. In November of that year, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, and Blitzer covered the negotiations between the two countries from the first joint Israeli-Egyptian press conference in 1977 to the final negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty two years later.^[9]

Fluent in Hebrew, in this period Blitzer also published articles for several Israeli-based newspapers. Under the name Zev Blitzer, he wrote for Al HaMishmar; using the name Zev Barak, he had work published in Yedioth Ahronoth.^[8]

In 1985, Blitzer published his first book, Between Washington and Jerusalem: A Reporter's Notebook (Oxford University Press, 1985). The text outlined his personal development as a reporter, and the relations between the United States and Israel.

Jonathan Pollard[link]

In 1986, he became known for his coverage of the arrest and trial of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who was charged with spying for Israel.^[9] Blitzer was the first journalist to interview Pollard, and he would later write a book about the Pollard Affair titled Territory of Lies.^[12] In the book, Blitzer writes that Pollard contacted him because he had been reading Blitzer's byline for years, and because Blitzer "had apparently impressed him as someone who was sympathetic".^[13] Pollard also hoped that Blitzer would help him "reach the people of Israel, as well as the American Jewish community."^[14]

Blitzer's interview with Pollard was controversial in the context of the legal action against him, as it was construed by some media voices as a possible violation of the terms of Pollard's plea deal, which forbade media contact. Blitzer's subsequent book about the affair was included in The New York Times list of "Notable Books of the Year" for 1989.^[15] In its review, the Times praised the book as "lucid and highly readable" and called Blitzer's judgment of Israeli officials "harsh but fair".^[16]

A review in The New York Review of Books was more critical, prompting a letter from Blitzer accusing the reviewer of making several inaccurate statements. Reviewer Robert I. Friedman responded to Blitzer's criticism by characterizing Territory of Lies as "a slick piece of damage control that would make [Blitzer's] former employers at AIPAC (not to mention Israel's Defense Ministry) proud."^[17]

Cable News Network[link]

Blitzer reviews notes during a break from presenting from the floor of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

In May 1990, Blitzer moved to CNN and worked as the cable network's military affairs reporter. Blitzer spent a month in Moscow in 1991, and was one of the first Western reporters to visit KGB headquarters. His team's coverage of the first Gulf War in Kuwait won a CableACE Award and made him a household name.

In 1992, Blitzer became CNN's White House correspondent, a position he would hold until 1999. During this period, he earned an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. In 1998, he began hosting the CNN Sunday morning interview program Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, which was seen in over 180 countries. Blitzer's first assignment as an anchor was on the daily newscast The World Today, in 1999. In 2000, he started anchoring his own show, Wolf Blitzer Reports.

CNN selected Blitzer to anchor their coverage of the 2004 presidential election and the 2008 presidential election. Since August 8, 2005, Blitzer has hosted The Situation Room, a three-hour afternoon/early evening program on CNN.^[18][19]

Awards[link]

Blitzer has won awards including the 2004 Journalist Pillar of Justice Award from the Respect for Law Alliance and the 2003 Daniel Pearl Award from the Chicago Press Veterans Association. His news team was among those awarded a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, an Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the 1999 Southeast Asian tsunami, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for CNN's coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In November 2002, he won the American Veteran Awards' Ernie Pyle Journalism Award for military reporting. In February 2000, he received the Anti-Defamation League’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. In 1999, Blitzer won the International Platform Association's Lowell Thomas Broadcast Journalism Award. Blitzer won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. Blitzer was also part of the CNN team that was awarded a Golden ACE award for their 1991 Gulf War reporting. In 1994, American Journalism Review cited him and CNN as the readers' choice for the Best in the Business Award for network coverage of the Clinton administration.^[18] On May 23, 2010, Blitzer was awarded the honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Niagara University at their undergraduate commencement exercise. Also, on May 14, 2011 he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Penn State University. On September 25, 2011, Blitzer was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Hartford.^[20]

Other media appearances[link]

Blitzer appears as himself in the 2009 documentary "Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace." The film deals with the back room negotiations that lead to the historic 1979 Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt. At the time, Blitzer was the Washington Bureau Chief of the Jerusalem Post, and played a key role in establishing a back channel of communications between Israel and the White House by introducing President Carter's General Counsel, Robert Lipshutz, to New York businessman Leon Charney, a close friend of then Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman.^[21] The flow of information between Weizman and Carter, via Charney and Lipshutz, contributed to finalizing the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

On September 17, 2009, Blitzer competed on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!, finishing the Double Jeopardy round with −$4,600. He was given $1,000 to bet in Final Jeopardy!, finishing with $2,000 and ultimately losing to comedian Andy Richter, who won $68,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.^[22][23] In an odd twist, a minor league soccer team from Blitzer's home town of Buffalo held a nickname contest and FC Buffalo's winner was "Blitzers."

Family[link]

Blitzer and his wife Lynn Greenfield live in Bethesda, Maryland, and have one daughter, Ilana, born in 1981.^[24]  

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wolf Blitzer

• CNN bio
• CNN.com — The Situation Room
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Wolf Blitzer on Charlie Rose
• Wolf Blitzer at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Wolf Blitzer in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Wolf Blitzer at the Notable Names Database
• "Wolf Blitzer for the Defense (Department)", Jim Naureckas, FAIR Extra!, January/February 2003
• Google Video on Israel Discussion - Held Nov 1989.

Steven Lawrence Rattner
Steven Rattner at the Financial Times View from the Top conference in 2011
Born	(1952-07-05) July 5, 1952 (age 59) Great Neck, New York
Residence	New York, New York
Nationality	United States
Education	Brown University
Occupation	Private equity investor, investment banker, journalist
Employer	Quadrangle Group, Lazard Freres & Co., New York Times
Known for	Automotive industry crisis of 2008-2009
Spouse	Maureen White
Children	4

Steven Lawrence Rattner (born July 5, 1952) is an American financier who served as the lead auto advisor (informally the "car czar") in the United States Treasury Department under President Barack Obama.^[1] He was previously a co-founding principal of the Quadrangle Group, a global private equity firm specializing in the media and communications industries. He also spent two decades as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Lazard Freres & Co., where he became Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer.^[2] Rattner began his career as an economic correspondent for The New York Times in New York, Washington and London.

Rattner is currently chairman of Willett Advisors LLC, the investment firm that manages New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's personal and philanthropic assets. He continues to be deeply involved in public policy matters, including as a contributing writer for the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, as the author of a monthly column for the Financial Times, and as the economic analyst for MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Education and background[link]

Born in New York City, Rattner was raised in the suburb of Great Neck, where he attended local public schools. He received his A.B. with honors in economics from Brown University in 1974 and was awarded the Harvey Baker Fellowship. While at Brown, he served as editor-in-chief of The Brown Daily Herald in 1973.

Career in journalism[link]

Upon graduating from Brown, Rattner was hired in Washington D.C. as a news clerk to New York Times columnist James Reston. After a year, he was transferred to New York as a reporter to cover business and energy. In 1977, he was sent back to Washington to cover the energy crisis. At age 27, he became the paper's chief Washington economic correspondent, where he became close friends with future Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. He concluded his service to The New York Times with a two-year stint in London as European Economic Correspondent.^[3]

Career in finance[link]

At the end of 1982, Rattner left The New York Times and was recruited by Roger Altman to join the investment bank Lehman Brothers as an associate. After Lehman was sold to American Express in 1984, he followed Eric Gleacher and several colleagues to Morgan Stanley, where he founded the firm's communications group. In 1989, after Morgan Stanley filed for an IPO, he joined Lazard as a general partner and completed various deals for companies such as Viacom and Comcast. Working alongside Felix Rohatyn, Rattner became a preeminent Lazard rainmaker in the 1990s. Michel David-Weill named him the firm's Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive in 1997.^[2]

In March 2000, Rattner and three Lazard partners left the firm and founded the Quadrangle Group, which initially focused on investing a $1 billion media-focused private equity fund.^[4] Headquartered in the Seagram Building, Quadrangle grew to manage more than $6 billion across several business lines, including private equity, distressed securities, and hedge funds. The firm also hosted an annual gathering for media executives called Foursquare, where speakers included Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. In 2008, the firm's asset management division announced it had been selected to invest the personal assets of Rattner's close friend, the billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.^[5]

Throughout his business career, Rattner served on several corporate boards including Cablevision, IAC/InterActiveCorp and Protection One.

Public service[link]

From his tenure with The New York Times in Washington D.C., Rattner developed a lifelong interest in economic policy, which drew him to politics and public service. In the mid-1990s, he began to work actively on behalf of Democratic candidates, beginning with President Bill Clinton. While it was rumored that Rattner would join a Democratic administration, he did not do so until after the election of President Barack Obama.^[5]

In February 2009, with both General Motors and Chrysler insolvent, Rattner was appointed Counselor to the United States Secretary of the Treasury and lead auto adviser. He soon assembled a team that grew to 14 professionals to address the financial problems of the two auto companies.^[1]

Reporting to both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, Rattner's team developed a plan to save both the two manufacturers and related suppliers and finance companies. The plan involved a total government (i.e., taxpayer) investment of $82 billion in the sector, coupled with controlled bankruptcies for the two auto companies, as well as new management for both.^[6]

Rattner later wrote a book: Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Auto Rescue. In the book Rattner states that the toughest decision for President Obama about the two auto companies was whether to save Chrysler. There was, however, no disagreement about asking GM CEO Richard Wagoner to step aside.^[7] By July 2009, both automakers had emerged from bankruptcy, had new management and were on their way to profitability.^[6] At that time, Rattner left Washington and returned to private life in New York. As of May 3, 2012 - approaching three years after the emergence from bankruptcy - taxpayers would lose an estimated $15 billion if the GM shares then still held by the government were sold. (Additional GM shares held by the government were sold in November 2010 in GM's initial public offering.)

Post-political career[link]

After leaving the government, Rattner wrote Overhaul, his New York Times best-selling account of the Obama Administration's successful rescue of the auto companies. He continued to speak out on auto-related matters as well as broader economic issues. Early in 2011, he began contributing a monthly column to the Financial Times on subjects ranging from the Greek crisis to the U.S. budget deficit. He also became the economic analyst for the MSNBC news show, Morning Joe.^[8][9] And in June 2011, he was named a contributing writer to The New York Times Op-Ed page, publishing a first column on how government policies drive up corn prices.

New York Pension Fund Corruption Investigation[link]

In 2005, Quadrangle made payments to private placement agent Hank Morris to help Quadrangle raise money for its second buyout fund.^[10] Morris had come highly recommended to Rattner from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.^[11] Hank Morris was also the chief political advisor to Alan Hevesi, the trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF). Morris told Rattner he could increase the size of the CRF investment in Quadrangle's second buyout fund. Rattner then agreed that Quadrangle would pay Morris 1.1% of any investments greater than $25 million from the CRF. ^[12]

In 2009, Quadrangle and a dozen other investment firms, including the much larger Carlyle Group, were investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the payments to Morris. The SEC viewed the payments as "kickbacks" in order to manage money for the New York State Common Retirement Fund since Morris was also a consultant to New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who controlled the Retirement Fund.^[13] Quadrangle paid $7 million in April 2010 to settle the SEC investigation. In November, Rattner personally settled for $6.2 million without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.^[14]

Prosecution by Attorney General Cuomo[link]

The case drew significant media attention when Andrew Cuomo, then New York's Attorney General, demanded more severe penalties from Rattner than other firms or individuals involved in the alleged corruption.^[15] Rattner was once a major fundraiser for Democratic Party candidates but had repeatedly passed on supporting Cuomo's campaigns.^[16] In an appearance on the Charlie Rose Show, Rattner asserted that hiring Hank Morris as a placement agent was "legal then, legal now, and done properly."^[17] He explained he was willing to settle on reasonable terms, but called Cuomo's demands "close to extortion" and questioned whether Cuomo was motivated by the "facts" of the case.^[18]

On December 30, 2010, Rattner reached a settlement to pay $10 million in restitution but no fines or penalties. He was also not prohibited from continuing to protest his innocence.^[19]

Personal[link]

Rattner has served as a board member or trustee of a number of civic and philanthropic organizations, including the Educational Broadcasting Corporation as chairman, Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City as chairman, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brown University, Brookings Institution and the New America Foundation. He is also member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an investor in Current TV, the network founded by Al Gore.

Rattner is married to Maureen White, who served for five years as finance chair for the Democratic National Committee and is now the Senior Advisor on Humanitarian Issues to the Special Representative-Afghanistan and Pakistan for the U.S. Department of State. They have four grown children and live in New York.^[20]

References[link]