Statement by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey on the Appointment of Kenneth L. Wainstein as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism

“Ken Wainstein has served in the Justice Department with great distinction for almost twenty years. He began his career as a line prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, and subsequently served as a homicide prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He has held several critical leadership positions in the Department, including serving as the General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; and, most recently, as the Department’s first Assistant Attorney General for National Security. I am grateful for Ken’s extraordinary service to the Department, and I am especially appreciative of his leadership in successfully managing the establishment and operations of the Department’s National Security Division, which has helped make the American people safer. While I am sorry to lose Ken as part of my leadership team, I can think of no better choice to serve as the President’s Homeland Security Advisor.”