Word: civiletti
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...self-portrait was refreshingly candid. Said Benjamin Civiletti, after his selection as the next U.S. Attorney General: "I am a kind of determined, strong professional, not much interested in personal charisma or attention. I could be described as businesslike or dull or serious. I have no flamboyance at all and little humor...
Friends of Civiletti, 44, a prematurely graying father of three teenagers, do not disagree with that self-effacing assessment. It is the professionalism of the soft-spoken New York-born lawyer that his colleagues at the Justice Department most admire. He had been personally plucked out of a successful law practice in Baltimore by Georgian Charles Kirbo, President Carter's top preInauguration adviser, to head the department's criminal division. In his service there, Civiletti won praise as a "lawyers' lawyer" who believed in strong preparation for building criminal cases that would stand up in court...
First as head of the department's criminal division and then as the number two man, he was handed the toughest problems the Department of Justice faced. He took over the investigation of FBI break-ins when five other lawyers quit in a dispute with Bell. It was Civiletti who journeyed to South Korea to negotiate for permission to question Washington influence-peddler Tong-sun Park. And when Bell decided to remove David W. Marston, the Republican U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia who was investigating a Democratic Congressman, Civiletti reassured Marston's staff that their pursuit of political corruption...
...Civiletti is also known as a man with neither political ambition nor a political following−and his loyalty to both Jimmy Carter and Griffin Bell, the man he will succeed, is unquestioned. Although the Civiletti appointment signals no shake-up at Justice, it may mean that criminal prosecutions will move more swiftly than under the easygoing Bell. Said Civiletti last week: "There is nothing more harmful to justice or the perception of justice than delay, red tape, unpreparedness." Civiletti is seeking ways to form task forces from the various divisions of the department (such as criminal, tax and antitrust...
Regarded in the past as a skilled trial lawyer, Civiletti holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Law School. He was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Baltimore, where he prosecuted fraud and other cases for two years, before going into private practice. Civiletti emphasized he has no further governmental ambitions. When he completes his service as Attorney General, he intends to return to his law practice in Baltimore...