Andrew Weissmann

Andrew A. Weissmann (born March 17, 1958) is an American attorney and professor. He was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1991 to 2002, when he prosecuted high-profile organized crime cases. Weissman also served as General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2011 to 2013, under President Barack Obama. He subsequently attended Princeton University where he received a bachelor's degree in 1980. After a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Geneva, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School. He then clerked for Judge Eugene Nickerson in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Career

US Attorney (1991-2002) In 1991, Weissmann was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and he remained in that role until 2002. While at EDNY, Weissmann tried more than 25 cases, some of which involved members of the Genovese, Colombo, and Gambino crime families. He led the prosecution team in the Vincent Gigante case, in which Gigante was convicted.

In Bush 43 Administration (2002-2005) From 2002 to 2005, Weissmann was deputy director, appointed by George W. Bush. Nonetheless, the case had already resulted in the destruction of the firm.

After the special counsel completed its mandate, in 2005, Weissmann was special counsel again with Robert Mueller.

Private practice (2005-2011) For a time, Weissmann went into private practice at Jenner & Block in New York.

In Obama administration (2011-2016) In 2011, he returned to the FBI, serving as general counsel under Mueller. From 2015 to 2017, he headed the criminal fraud section at the U.S. Department of Justice.

In Trump I administration (2017-2019) On June 19, 2017, Weissmann joined Special Counsel Mueller's team to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. He was called "the architect of the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort". A news report in March 2019 said he would soon leave the Justice Department, become a faculty member at New York University, and work on public service projects. In 2020, Weissmann returned to Jenner & Block as co-chair of its investigations, compliance, and defense practice.

On March 25, 2025, Trump issued an executive order 14246 against Jenner & Block that suspended the security clearance of lawyers and "restricted their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work". The order also mentioned the firm's employment of Weissmann. The firm has also been involved in challenging a number of policies by the Trump administration since the start of Trump's second term. Beginning in March 2023, he co-hosted the MSNBC podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump (with fellow former prosecutor Mary McCord), which won the 'Webby Winner' and 'People's Voice Winner' in the Crime & Justice category of the 2024 Webby Awards.

Since the second election of Trump, they have co-hosted a podcast entitled Main Justice. Their May 10, 2025 podcast also was published on the Weissmann May 10, 2025 episode of his Substack newsletter that is entitled, Behind The Headlines.

His book Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation was published in September 2020.

In May 2026 Weissmann published Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America (Little, Brown & Company)

Personal life Andrew Weissmann is the brother of Lisa Beth Weissmann, MD, of Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.