The nation’s top law enforcement officials did their best to describe the life and influence of late Justice Department legend Jack Keeney at a memorial service Tuesday. Many used words like “solid,” “hero” and “a man of integrity.”
It was his son who described his dad — and his 59 years of work at the Justice Department – simply as “good.” He was good as a prosecutor, good as a father and now leaves a legacy as the longest-serving Justice Department lawyer ever, said Terence J. Keeney, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.
Jack Keeney’s life was honored Tuesday in the Great Hall of Justice Department headquarters in Washington, where Keeney was one of a handful of career lawyers widely said to be really running the place, as administrations came and went.
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From left: Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey Former, former Attorney General William Barr, former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip, former Acting Attorney General Peter Keisler and Chief of Staff Gary Grindler attended the memorial Tuesday.
Speakers included former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Jo Ann Harris, former Deputy Attorney General Philip B. Heymann, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, now the top career Justice Department official advising the political appointees, also spoke and acted as a kind of emcee for the day.
Keeney died Nov. 19 at his home in Kensington, Md., at age 89. He worked under 11 presidents and nearly 20 Attorneys General as a prosecutor and superviser at the Justice Department, retiring in September 2010 as the Criminal Division’s Deputy Assistant Attorney General, a position he held for nearly 40 years.
Breuer talked about Keeney’s last day at the Justice Department more than a year ago, as the 88-year-old walked slowly down a long hall to the exit with Margolis at his side. Doors began to open, with people poking their heads into the hallway. Soon, dozens of people were standing outside their offices, giving spontaneous standing ovations to the man who so many called a mentor.
Cole was one of those who said he learned from Keeney. The Deputy Attorney General began his career at the department in 1979 through the prestigious Honor’s Program, later rising to deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section. “We expect you to be like Jack,” Cole told the younger department attorneys in the crowd.
Heymann, who served in the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton administrations, recalled that several times Keeney took the heat for him when one of the AGs was upset or something had gone wrong in a case. And on top of his integrity, Heymann said, Keeney was renowned for his decision-making.
When Heymann was a young Assistant Attorney General in the Carter administration, he said Attorney General Griffin Bell would occasionally call down to his office to ask Heymann to help with a difficult problem. Heymann said it made him feel important that the Attorney General wanted his advice.
And, then, without fail, he said the Attorney General would add: “And please bring Jack Keeney with you.”
Mueller called Keeney one of the three wise men in his life, always available to reason through a problem with any attorney, young or old, he said. ”He was our voice of reason, our institutional memory,” Mueller said to the audience.
And while Mueller called him one of his wise men, Holder said he tried to call Keeney “dad” once. Afterward, the Attorney General said, he just felt awful. Everyone, even his friends, referred to him as “Mr. Keeney.”
Keeney served as deputy chief of the organized crime and racketeering section and chief of the fraud section, in addition to his lengthy career as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division.
In the fraud section, Keeney helped negotiate a groundbreaking treaty with Switzerland, which allowed U.S. investigators to access Swiss bank accounts during major criminal investigations. In 1990, he received the Henry E. Peterson Award, the Criminal Division’s highest award, and later, in 1996, he was given the Attorney General’s Award for his service.
Keeney served in the Army Air Corps during World War II as a pilot. His B-17 bomber was shot down while flying over Germany and he was a prisoner of war in a Nazi camp for several months. After his military service, Keeney graduated from the University of Scranton in 1947. He later received law degrees from Dickinson School of Law and George Washington University School of Law.
In 2000, the Justice Department named a Justice Department building at 1301 New York Avenue N.W. in Washington after him. “Think about it: Robert Kennedy and John Keeney,” said Holder, referring to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in which they were all gathered, otherwise known as Main Justice.
Attorney General Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and Associate Deputy Attorney David Margolis spoke at Keeney's memorial. (Lonnie Tague, DOJ)
