A newly hired assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria will help prosecute terrorism cases.
Andrew Peterson joins the terrorism and national security unit after serving as a lawyer with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel, where he received the 2010 Intelligence Community Junior Lawyer of the Year Award.
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At the CIA, it was Peterson’s responsibility to represent the agency in federal court, provide guidance on laws regulating intelligence gathering, and brief senior leadership on pending litigation issues.
At Alexandria’s federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, he will find a terrorism prosecution unit well-versed in high-profile cases, U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said.
“The Eastern District of Virginia has a long-standing reputation of handling some of the most challenging and important national security cases, and Andy has the background we need to continue this tradition,” MacBride said.
The court was home to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It’s also where former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was convicted of spying for Russia for more than 20 years. Both men are in the federal “Supermax” prison in Colorado.
Peterson is a New York University School of Law graduate. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas in the high-profile U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
That’s the same court where former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani clerked. The clerkship helped land Giuliani in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, too. Once there, he made a name for himself prosecuting mobsters and quickly rose through the ranks.
Peterson also served on the board of advisers for the Center of Law and Security at New York University School of Law. He has a bachelor’s degree in global studies, and in Asian languages and literature from the University of Iowa.
