Early government service After admission to the bar, Terwilliger served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (1978–81) and an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont (1981–87) and then became U.S. Attorney for Vermont (1987-1991) and later Deputy U.S. Attorney General (1991–93) in the
George H. W. Bush administration. Terwilliger was on a small prosecutor team that managed the initial response to the initial response to the shooting of President Reagan. Terwilliger specialized in
white-collar crime and terrorism.In 1987, Terwilliger prosecuted three men in a terrorism case involving a bomb smuggled into the US in Vermont. In 1993, Terwilliger briefly took the helm of the Justice Department as acting attorney general after the departure of former Attorney General
William Barr.
Iran-Contra Terwilliger commented on the
Iran–Contra affair in a February 6, 2001 appearance on a
CNN titled "Burden of Proof: Ronald Reagan's Legal Legacy".
2000 Florida recount During the Florida 2000 election recount, Terwilliger was co-leader of
Republican President-elect
George W. Bush's legal team and was "an advisor to the Bush-Cheney Transition and counselor to designated cabinet and other prospective appointees." In June 2001,
Bush administration spokesman
Ari Fleischer was asked in a White House press briefing whether Terwilliger was a leading candidate to head the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Private legal practice Rather than return to government service, in 2003, Terwilliger co-founded the
527 committee "Americans for a Better Country" with
Frank J. Donatelli, former
Ronald Reagan White House political director and secretary and treasurer of the
Young America's Foundation, and
Craig Shirley, president and CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs. In April 2007 Terwilliger served as a panelist for the
Brookings Institution Judicial Issues Forum entitled "Politics and the Justice Department: Finding a Path to Accountability". Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales resigned August 27, 2007, and left office on September 17, 2007. On October 10, 2007, news outlets reported that Gonzales hired Terwilliger "to represent him in investigations of mismanagement" of the
U.S. Department of Justice. "Investigators are look[ing] into allegations that Gonzales lied to lawmakers and illegally allowed politics to influence
hiring and firing at the department." Terwilliger represented Gonzales through several Inspector General investigations and a subsequent criminal investigation by a special prosecutor. Gonzales was exonerated in all matters. In 2008, the American Bar Association mentioned Terwilliger as a leading candidate for Attorney General under a
John McCain presidency. Since January 2024, he has been serving as an attorney and counsel at Terwilliger Law PLLC in Washington, D.C., continuing to represent clients on a selective basis. He also represents
Mark Meadows, former White House Chief of Staff to President
Donald Trump, with regard to the investigation of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a Select Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Terwilliger counseled Meadows through multiple investigations and litigation, none of which resulted in any determination of Meadows wrongdoing. As a veteran of Department of Justice and other US agency policies and practices, Terwilliger is called upon by the media and by congressional committees for his views on criminal justice and national security policy matters. ==Affiliations==