Michael B Mukasey

Senate Democrats assailed Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey on Wednesday for refusing to offer an opinion on the legality of waterboarding, an interrogation method that many consider a form of illegal torture. In often sharp exchanges, the lawmakers accused Mukasey of trying to protect the Bush administration, with one comparing him to a corporate lawyer trying to cover up the misdeeds of his client.

In recent days, Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey has voiced opposition to the early release of hundreds of federal inmates convicted of dealing crack cocaine, saying the move would unleash a potential crime wave in communities across the country. He reiterated his concern Thursday at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. But some U.S. attorney offices around the country may not be getting the message.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday rebuffed Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey's request for legislation that would cancel the U.S. Sentencing Commission's recent decision to retroactively apply lower jail terms to as many as 19,500 crack cocaine offenders sentenced under tough "war on drugs" legislation from the 1980s. About 1,600 of those inmates will be eligible to apply for reduced sentences this year, according to the commission. The new guidelines take effect March 3.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called on Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey to explain the recent disbanding of a high-profile unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles that specialized in prosecuting public corruption cases. In a letter to the attorney general, Feinstein said she read about the shake-up in news accounts. The articles described how U.S. Atty. Thomas P.

Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey said Tuesday that the Justice Department had no plans to bring criminal charges in connection with hiring abuses that took place under his predecessor, Alberto R. Gonzales. Mukasey said the findings in two recent reports by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine -- that a group of influential Gonzales aides considered politics and ideology in hiring career employees and summer interns -- were "disturbing."

Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey was rushed to the hospital Thursday night after collapsing and losing consciousness during a speech on the war on terrorism, a Justice Department official said. Mukasey slumped to the floor near the conclusion of his remarks before the Federalist Society's annual dinner at a northwest Washington hotel, said Peter A. Carr, chief spokesman for the department.

President Bush is preparing to nominate Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal district court judge from New York, to succeed Alberto R. Gonzales as U.S. attorney general, people familiar with the president's thinking said late Sunday. White House officials began on Sunday to distribute background materials on Mukasey to Republican aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee in preparation for confirmation hearings in a month or so, the staffers said.

Former federal Judge Michael B. Mukasey, nominated Monday to succeed Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general, has credentials that normally would assure swift confirmation. But he was immediately plunged into a long- running fight between Senate Democrats and the White House over the limits of executive power.

Michael B. Mukasey is best known as the federal judge from New York who skillfully presided over one of the nation's first terrorism trials, the prosecution and conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheik," after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Civil libertarians often point to that case to buttress their belief that terrorism suspects -- including the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba -- should be tried in federal court.