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DEBEVOISE
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PLIMPTON
LLP
lJll) Third Avenut>
New York, NY 10022
eli: I 212 909 6000
Fax 212 909 6H3G
www.t.khevoise.com
December 8, 2010
Gary J. Cohen, Esq.
General Counsel
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
1717 Pennsylvania, NW, Suite 800
Washington DC, 20066-4644
Dear Mr. Cohen:
Thank you for your Jetter informing us that you may quote Judge Mukasey's
interview in your Report to Congress, the President, and the American public. We
appreciate the notice and the opportunity to conunent.
We wish to raise two issues in connection with your Jetter. First, you quote Judge
Mukasey as stating that "national security was an overriding concern." Although Judge
Mukasey did state that national security "was an overriding problem," those words were
in the context of him recalling the breadth of activities that he undertook at the beginning
of his term. For completeness sake, it is important to note that Judge Mukasey indicated
that there were other priorities in those early days of his tenure as well, including
reviewing the Office of Legal Counsel's letters relating to interrogation practices and
being briefed on the entire range of civil and criminal activities that confronted the
Justice Department, which he noted likely included a discussion of financial crimes such
as mortgage fraud. Judge Mukasey also added that the four major priorities of his entire
term were terrorism, gang-related activity, civil rights enforcement, and the Southwest
border. Although he noted that mortgage fraud was not one of the four major priorities
identified by the Administration, Judge Mukasey specifically stated that mortgage fraud
was a priority of the Department of Justice during his tenure and noted some prominent
law enforcement efforts relating to mortgage fraud during his term, including Operation
Malicious Mortgage. Some of this additional information is certainly necessary to place
his comment on national security in context.
New York • Washington, D.C. • London • Paris • Frankfurt • Moscow • Hong Kong • Shanghai
Gary J. Cohen, Esq.
2
December 8, 2010
Second, you note that "related material" may also be included in the report. It
would be helpful if you would provide additional detail on what related material may be
included so that we may have the opportunity to provide any further comments.
We appreciate that you have a deadline for your Report, and we know you are
working hard to complete your work. We thank you for your courtesy and fairness in
allowing comment and hope you will continue to share any proposed language with us
that you plan to cite from Judge Mukasey's interview so that we can appropriately
comment in advance and avoid misunderstandings down the road.
Thank you again for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely yours,
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