Fred F. Fielding
Encyclopedia
Fred Fisher Fielding is an American
lawyer, and held the office of White House Counsel
for US Presidents
Ronald Reagan
and George W. Bush
.
and raised in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania
. Fielding attended Central Bucks High School West, graduated with honors from Gettysburg College
, and then attended the University of Virginia School of Law
.
He married Maria Dugger on October 21, 1967. They have two children: Adam and Alexandra.
law firm. He has served the American government in a number of roles throughout his career.
Fielding served as Associate Counsel for President
Richard Nixon
from 1970 to 1972, where he was the deputy to John Dean
during the Watergate scandal
. He was the Counsel to the President for President Ronald Reagan
from 1981 to 1986. Fielding has also served on the Tribunal on the U.S.-UK Air Treaty Dispute (1989–1994), as a member of the president's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform
(1989), as a member of the Secretary of Transportation's Task Force on Aviation Disasters (1997–1998) and as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission
).
In 2007 he represented, along with a great many others, Blackwater Worldwide
, a private military company
. Following the Blackwater Baghdad shootings
, Henry Waxman
's House Oversight Committee subpoena
ed its Chief Executive Officer
Erik Prince
to testify. The climate of opinion among politicians and the public at large jeopardized its contracts to provide security for State Department personnel in Iraq
. He also represented the firm in Helvenston et al. v. Blackwater Security
, a lawsuit arising from the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush
.
He was selected on January 8, 2007 by President George W. Bush to replace outgoing White House Counsel Harriet Miers
.
Fielding has reportedly maintained close ties to Vice President
Dick Cheney
, whom he has known for decades and occasionally served as an informal adviser. However, according to Time magazine in July 2009, Fielding opposed Cheney's request that President Bush issue a full pardon to convicted vice presidential aide Scooter Libby. Following Fielding's advice, Bush ended up not pardoning Libby. J. Michael Luttig
, a former federal judge who worked with Fielding in the Reagan Administration and remains close to Fielding, said: "He has a firm, clear view of executive prerogative, but he also understands as well as anyone in Washington the constitutional need for compromise. He is not someone that takes an absolutist
position and then drives the presidency and the branches together off the brink. He has judgment."
Fielding was responsible for approving the pardon issued by President Bush to convicted real estate fraudster Isaac Toussie
. When the New York Daily News
reported that Toussie had made large contributions to the Republican Party, the White House
revoked the pardon the next day.
Fielding is now the chairman of the National Legal Center for the Public Interest
.
students taught by William Gaines
conducted a detailed review of source materials, leading them to conclude that Fielding was Deep Throat, the unnamed source for articles written by Washington Post
reporters Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein
. Many years previously, former White House Chief of Staff
for Richard Nixon
, H. R. Haldeman
, also concluded that Fielding was Deep Throat.
That speculation ended after former top Federal Bureau of Investigation
official W. Mark Felt
announced in May 2005 that he was the mysterious Watergate informant, as later confirmed by Woodward, Bernstein and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee in a statement released through The Washington Post
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer, and held the office of White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
for US Presidents
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Personal life
Fielding was born in PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
and raised in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania
Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania
Mechanicsville is the name of places in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania:*Mechanicsville, Montour County, Pennsylvania*Mechanicsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania...
. Fielding attended Central Bucks High School West, graduated with honors from Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
, and then attended the University of Virginia School of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
The University of Virginia School of Law was founded in Charlottesville in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as one of the original subjects taught at his "academical village," the University of Virginia. The law school maintains an enrollment of approximately 1,100 students in its initial degree program...
.
He married Maria Dugger on October 21, 1967. They have two children: Adam and Alexandra.
Career
Fielding was a senior partner at Wiley Rein LLP (formerly Wiley Rein & Fielding), a Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
law firm. He has served the American government in a number of roles throughout his career.
Fielding served as Associate Counsel for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
from 1970 to 1972, where he was the deputy to John Dean
John Dean
John Wesley Dean III is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up...
during the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
. He was the Counsel to the President for President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
from 1981 to 1986. Fielding has also served on the Tribunal on the U.S.-UK Air Treaty Dispute (1989–1994), as a member of the president's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform
Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform
Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform was a commission established by executive order by President George H. W. Bush to review federal ethics laws, executive orders, and policies and to make recommendations to the president for legislative, administrative, and other reforms needed to ensure full...
(1989), as a member of the Secretary of Transportation's Task Force on Aviation Disasters (1997–1998) and as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
).
In 2007 he represented, along with a great many others, Blackwater Worldwide
Blackwater Worldwide
Xe Services LLC, better known by its former names, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide, is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.. Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors...
, a private military company
Private military company
A private military company or provides military and security services. These combatants are commonly known as mercenaries, though modern-day PMCs refer to their staff as security contractors, private military contractors or private security contractors, and refer to themselves as private military...
. Following the Blackwater Baghdad shootings
Blackwater Baghdad shootings
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater military contractors allegedly shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. The fatalities occurred while a Blackwater Personal Security Detail was clearing the way for a convoy of US State Department vehicles en route to a meeting in western...
, Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...
's House Oversight Committee subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
ed its Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Erik Prince
Erik Prince
Erik Dean Prince is the founder and formerly the sole owner of the private military company Xe Services LLC, formerly Blackwater Worldwide. On March 2, 2009, Prince announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Xe. He is currently living abroad in the United Arab Emirates, where he is creating a...
to testify. The climate of opinion among politicians and the public at large jeopardized its contracts to provide security for State Department personnel in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. He also represented the firm in Helvenston et al. v. Blackwater Security
Helvenston et al. v. Blackwater Security
Helvenston et al. v. Blackwater Security is the lawsuit for wrongful death filed by the families of the four contractors for Blackwater Security who were slain in the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush...
, a lawsuit arising from the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush
31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush
On March 31, 2004 an ambush saw Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah attack a convoy containing four United States contractors from the private security company Blackwater USA, who were conducting delivery for food caterers ESS....
.
He was selected on January 8, 2007 by President George W. Bush to replace outgoing White House Counsel Harriet Miers
Harriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel. In 2005, she was nominated by President George W. Bush to be an Associate Justice of the U.S...
.
Fielding has reportedly maintained close ties to Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, whom he has known for decades and occasionally served as an informal adviser. However, according to Time magazine in July 2009, Fielding opposed Cheney's request that President Bush issue a full pardon to convicted vice presidential aide Scooter Libby. Following Fielding's advice, Bush ended up not pardoning Libby. J. Michael Luttig
J. Michael Luttig
J. Michael Luttig is an American lawyer and a former federal appellate court judge.-Education and early work:Born in Tyler, Texas, Luttig graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1976. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in...
, a former federal judge who worked with Fielding in the Reagan Administration and remains close to Fielding, said: "He has a firm, clear view of executive prerogative, but he also understands as well as anyone in Washington the constitutional need for compromise. He is not someone that takes an absolutist
Absolutism
The term Absolutism may refer to:* Absolute idealism, an ontologically monistic philosophy attributed to G.W.F. Hegel. It is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole...
position and then drives the presidency and the branches together off the brink. He has judgment."
Fielding was responsible for approving the pardon issued by President Bush to convicted real estate fraudster Isaac Toussie
Isaac Toussie
Isaac Robert Toussie is a Brooklyn, New York real estate developer convicted of fraudulently obtaining mortgages from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On December 23, 2008, Toussie was granted a pardon by President George W...
. When the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
reported that Toussie had made large contributions to the Republican Party, the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
revoked the pardon the next day.
Fielding is now the chairman of the National Legal Center for the Public Interest
National Legal Center for the Public Interest
AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest was formed when the National Legal Center for the Public Interest was merged into the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute in September 2007...
.
Deep Throat connection
In April 2003, a team of journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
students taught by William Gaines
William Gaines (professor)
William C. Gaines is an American journalist and professor of journalism. Gaines was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune...
conducted a detailed review of source materials, leading them to conclude that Fielding was Deep Throat, the unnamed source for articles written by Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reporters Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
and Carl Bernstein
Carl Bernstein
Carl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...
. Many years previously, former White House Chief of Staff
White House Chief of Staff
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
for Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, H. R. Haldeman
H. R. Haldeman
Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and for his role in events leading to the Watergate burglaries and the Watergate scandal – for which he was found guilty of conspiracy...
, also concluded that Fielding was Deep Throat.
That speculation ended after former top Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
official W. Mark Felt
W. Mark Felt
William Mark Felt, Sr. was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director...
announced in May 2005 that he was the mysterious Watergate informant, as later confirmed by Woodward, Bernstein and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee in a statement released through The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
.