File photo showing federal prosecutors Andrew Weissmann (L), Matt Friedrich (2nd L, back), FBI agent Barbara Sullivan (3rd L), FBI agent Paula Shanzel (3rd R, back), US Assistant District Attorney Leslie R. Caldwell (2nd R) and prosecutor Sam Buell (R), in Houston, Texas, on15 June 2002. (JAMES NIELSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s key deputy is headlining a fundraiser for presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign, according to an invitation to the event obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Andrew Weissmann, who held the second-most senior position on Mueller’s team investigating allegations of criminal conspiracy by the Trump campaign to work with Russia to swing the 2016 election, will host a June 2 “fireside chat” for prospective Biden donors.
Moderating the event is former federal prosecutor and law professor at New York University Anne Milgram, who also co-hosts the Cafe Insider podcast. In a recent episode, Milgram commented on the recent dismissal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, writing on Twitter: “Trump’s purge of Inspectors General is an attack on good government.”
The fundraiser is being put on by the “Biden Victory Fund,” a joint fundraising committee between the former vice president’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The chat will take place on Zoom, and “guests who RSVP by making a contribution…will be sent instructions for how to join via Zoom,” the invitation states.
Weissmann was recently featured as a legal analyst on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, during which he criticized Trump’s comments about the judge and lead juror in the Roger Stone trial, arguing that it poses a threat to the integrity of the U.S. jury system.
After Weissmann left Mueller’s team, he returned to New York University School of Law last May as a distinguished senior fellow with the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law (CACL), according to a post on the school’s website.
“Andrew has led an extraordinary career in law and government,” NYU School of Law Dean Trevor Morrison said in an email to the NYU Law community.
Weissmann’s credentials include serving over twenty years as a federal prosecutor and as general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after serving as special counsel to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller.
He also headed the Enron Task Force, overseeing the prosecution of dozens of individuals involved with the Enron collapse.
File photo showing federal prosecutors Matt Friedrich (L) and Andrew Weissmann (2ndL), FBI agent Paula Shanzel (3rdL), federal prosecutor Sam Buell (C), US Assistant District Attorney Leslie R. Caldwell (2ndR) and FBI agent Barbara Sullivan (R), outside the federal courts building in Houston, Texas, on 15 June 2002. (James Nielsen/AFP/Getty Images)
“Doing a very sophisticated white-collar investigation prepares you for representing companies,” Weissmann would later say in reference to his experience investigating one of the biggest fraud cases in American history, according to Chron. “Enron itself was the world’s most complicated internal investigation.”
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer took a jab at Weissmann’s involvement with Biden’s campaign, saying in a tweet Thursday, which linked to the fireside chat invitation, that “as if we didn’t already know, Andrew Weissmann’s politics are officially unmasked.”
Tickets for the fundraiser with Weissmann start at $500 and go up to $5,600, the combined maximum federal contribution for Biden’s primary and general election accounts, Bloomberg reports.
Recently released campaign fundraising figures show that while Biden and the DNC matched the fundraising performance of Trump and the Republican Party in April, the presumptive Democrat nominee remains well behind.
According to their respective Federal Election Commission filings from May 20, Trump had 107.7 million cash on hand at the end of April, while Biden had 57.1 million.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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