Matthew Friedrich Named New DOJ Criminal Division Chief

A veteran prosecutor and top aide on criminal matters to Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been tapped to lead the Criminal Division at Main Justice.

President George W. Bush today designated Matthew Friedrich as the acting assistant attorney general in replacement of Alice Fisher, who leaves the department tomorrow.

Friedrich is Fisher's former chief of staff and also was a principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division.

Friedrich has served on the department's Enron task force and previously worked as one of the lead prosecutors in the Arthur Andersen case when he served in the Eastern District of Virginia. A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Texas, Friedrich joined the department as a Tax Division attorney in 1995.

In 2003, Legal Times had this profile of Friedrich.