Nicholas Lewin ’04
https: //law.yale.edu/studying-law-yale/alumni-student-profiles/nicholas-lewin-04
In June 2009, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani became the first — and, to date, only — Guantanamo detainee to be transferred from Guantanamo Bay for prosecution in federal court. I returned to SDNY to prosecute the Ghailani case. Ghailani was charged for his role in al Qaeda’s August 1998 attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured thousands more. After his 2004 capture in Pakistan, Ghailani was held in a CIA black site — during which time he was subject to so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” — before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. For more than a year, we prepared for trial; I spent months traveling across the world with our truly extraordinary FBI case agents, including to Guantanamo Bay, Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I met with dozens of the victims and their families. We briefed and argued multiple dispositive and complex pre-trial motions, including ones based on alleged violations of the speedy trial clause and of outrageous government conduct. After a five-week trial, the jury convicted Ghailani of one count (which carried a life sentence) but acquitted him of 284. Nevertheless, I cannot imagine that I will ever prosecute another case in which I will be prouder to have played a role.
In May of 2012, I accepted another long-term assignment, as Special Counsel to FBI Director Robert Mueller, and served for about a year-and-a-half as his advisor on a wide variety of national security matters. After Director Mueller left, I served briefly as special counsel to Director James Comey, before returning to SDNY. Serving as the Directors’ Special Counsel was just as interesting as it sounds. And it was a personal honor to serve Directors Mueller and Comey.