Website Official website Appointed by Bill Clinton Spouse Beth Heifetz (m. 1993) | Role Counsel Name Glenn Fine | |
 | ||
President Bill Clinton George W. Bush
Barack Obama Education Harvard Law School, University of Oxford, Cheltenham High School, Harvard College, Harvard University Similar People Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Bill Clinton | ||
Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department inspector general who revealed FBI data gathering abuses in a
Glenn Alan Fine is the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense. He has served in that position since January 2016. He joined the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General in June 2015.
Contents
- Glenn A Fine the Justice Department inspector general who revealed FBI data gathering abuses in a
- Personal life
- Education
- Inspector General
- Retirement as DOJ IG
- Return to Public Service
- References
Fine previously served as the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) from 2000 until January 2011. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 2000. Prior to his appointment as the DOJ Inspector General, Fine served as Special Counsel to the DOJ Inspector General from January 1995 until 1996, when he was made Director of the OIG's Special Investigations and Review Unit.
Immediately prior to joining the OIG office at the Department of Justice, Fine had been in a private law practice in Washington, D.C.. Before entering private practice, Fine served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Washington, D.C. United States Attorney's Office from 1986 to 1989. In those three years, he prosecuted more than 35 criminal jury trials and handled numerous grand jury investigations.
Personal life
Fine's father was an antitrust lawyer at the Justice Department for 28 years.
In September 1993, Fine married Beth Heifetz, a former law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. The wedding was jointly officiated at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC by Justice Blackmun and Rabbi Howard Gorin. They have two children.
Education
Fine attended Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. In 1979, he graduated with an A.B. degree in economics from Harvard College, magna cum laude. He was co-captain of the Harvard varsity basketball team.
Though only 5'9", he was a 10th-round draft pick by the San Antonio Spurs, an NBA basketball team, in 1979. Instead, he accepted a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. Fine earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oxford. He received his JD from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1985.
Inspector General
Fine was appointed Inspector General of the Department of Justice by President Bill Clinton in 2000. The office is expected to be non-partisan.
As the Inspector General, Fine supervised a staff of more than 400 employees who conducted investigations, audits and special reviews of Department of Justice programs and expenditures. Among some of the most high profile of these matters were the reviews of the Department of Justice’s handling of intelligence information related to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Department’s treatment of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks, allegations regarding politicized hiring in the Justice Department and the firing of U.S. Attorneys, the FBI’s misuse of national security letters, and the Department’s preparation to respond to attacks utilizing weapons of mass destruction. Under his supervision, the OIG also conducted many audits of the Department’s operations and practices, as well as investigations of individual allegations of misconduct by Department employees. Mr. Fine testified more than 40 times before Congressional committees. For his work, Fine was named the National Law Journal’s Lawyer of the Year in 2008. He also received numerous other honors and recognitions, including Harvard Law School's Cox, Coleman, and Richardson Award for Distinguished Public Service. He has frequently been profiled in major media outlets.
You're part of the department, but you’re also independent... You have to recognize that you’re not going to be popular. You have to be as fair and aggressive as you can and just accept that you’re not going to please everyone.
Retirement as DOJ IG
Fine resigned as the DOJ Inspector General in February 2011. He joined Dechert as a partner in the White Collar & Securities Litigation Practice on September 6, 2011. Shortly after he announced his retirement, the New York Times praised Fine's tenure as the DOJ Inspector General:
The Department of Justice's inspector general, Glenn Fine, stepped down on Friday after a decade of pushing to clean up and depoliticize a hyperpoliticized department. He will be missed. Mr. Fine's best-known efforts came in 2008 when he documented the George W. Bush administration's politically driven firings of four United States attorneys and its politically driven hirings (breaking the civil service law) of scores of civil servants at the Civil Rights Division. Last year, he continued to detail the F.B.I.'s widespread misuse since 2001 of 'exigent letters'... President Obama should appoint a vigilant successor to Mr. Fine, one who will continue to expose the department's shortcomings and their costs.
Other newspapers also praised his tenure as the DOJ IG. The Washington Post wrote, "The job of Inspector General is often thankless one, requiring the ability to make unflinching and crucial assessments that are not always well received by colleagues. The Justice Department employed one of the best during the past decade in the person of Glenn A. Fine, who recently stepped down. Mr. Fine was instrumental in unearthing problems and identifying solutions in the mammoth agency since joining the IG's office in the mid-1990s. He took over the reins in 2000 and led investigations into all facets of the department's operations". A segment on NPR praised Fine as "a model IG."
Return to Public Service
In June 2015, Fine returned to Public Service and accepted a position as the Principal Deputy Inspector General of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DOD OIG). The DOD OIG has over 1500 employees and is responsible for providing oversight over the entire Department of Defense.
On January 10, 2016, Fine became the Acting Inspector General for the DOD. On September 28, 2016, the President nominated Fine to become the permanent DoD IG.