Sally Q. Yates served as Deputy Attorney General in the Obama administration from January 2015 through January 2017, and then briefly served as Acting Attorney General. As Deputy Attorney General, she oversaw all facets of the Department’s work, including its four law enforcement agencies (FBI, DEA, ATF and Marshals Service), its prosecutorial, litigating and national security components, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In addition to managing the day-to-day operation of the Department, during her tenure, Yates spearheaded changes at DOJ focused on criminal justice reform, including prison reform; ensuring individual accountability or corporate wrongdoing; and utilizing prosecutorial resources in a focused manner to build safer communities. Prior to her time as Deputy Attorney General, she served as United States Attorney in Atlanta, where she had previously been an Assistant United States Attorney. During her time in Atlanta, she prosecuted a wide variety of white collar and public corruption matters and was the lead prosecutor in the case against Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. Prior to her service in the U. S. Attorney’s office, she practiced commercial litigation.
Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a senior legal analyst at CNN and the author of Too Close to Call, A Vast Conspiracy, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, The Oath: The Obama White House vs. the Supreme Court and most recently, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst. Well known for his ability to illuminate the complexities of our judicial system, Toobin has covered some of the country’s most sensational news stories and high-profile cases such as the Starr investigation of President Clinton, Martha Stewart’s legal battles, the O.J. Simpson trial, numerous Supreme Court cases.