Justice Department career prosecutor Paul Tiao, who has been serving as special counsel to FBI Director Robert Mueller III, was nominated Thursday to be the Labor Department inspector general, the White House said.
Tiao, an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland since 2002, has served as special counsel to Mueller since March 2009. The White House said Tiao has advised Mueller “on a wide range of legal and policy matters in the national security and criminal arenas.”
Tiao’s background also includes stints as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee between 2007 and 2008. From 2000 to 2002, Tiao was an associate in the Washington office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
The Labor Department inspector general has an “external” responsibility in addition to reviewing the integrity of department programs. The inspector general’s office conducts criminal racketeering investigations in areas such as employee benefit plans and internal union affairs.
Deputy Inspector General Daniel Petrole had served as the acting inspector general at Labor. The previous inspector general, Gordon Heddell, was sworn in as the inspector general for the Defense Department in July 2009. Heddell had been Labor’s inspector general since 2001.
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