Mukasey seen as his own man

The trial also deeply affected him on a personal level because of the heavy security contingent he and his family were given until his retirement from the bench last year. Guards moved into his home, taking over a spare room. "His house was wired and ringed," Bialkin said. They also "pitched a trailer" next to his country home outside the city.

Though he is widely viewed as pro-government, he has also lashed out at prosecutors who he thinks are ill-prepared or trying to pull one over on the court.

New York attorney Donna R. Newman represented alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla when he was held incognito on a material witness warrant in Manhattan in 2002. For months she was denied access to her client; then Mukasey issued two landmark rulings: one, that the government could indeed hold Padilla as an unlawful combatant; and the other, most important to Newman, that she had a right to meet with Padilla.

Yet after the rulings, she said, federal prosecutors still refused to let her see Padilla. "They kept dragging their feet," she recalled. "It was one thing after another.

"And he came down very hard on them. He told them an order was an order; do it!"

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rick.schmitt@latimes.com

richard.serrano@latimes.com