Mary Jo White Quotes

I started my career in the private sector and then became U.S. attorney. I think I was a stronger U.S. attorney, and I frankly think I am a stronger Chair of the SEC, because of that experience.

I think what I brought from the private sector was a real appreciation of how much leverage – respect, if you will – that the SEC has. Major companies, in particular, really don’t want to be at war with their primary regulator. The SEC may not have appreciated just how great our leverage is.

I’m literally an independent. Apolitical. So that I am not always going to be with the Left’s perceived interests or the Right’s perceived interests.

The 1993 Trade Center bombing was obviously frightening. It could have been much worse than it was.

You ask every conceivable question after Sept. 11 in terms of what more could have been done, what could have been done differently. My impression from working on these cases and investigations for almost nine years was that an awful lot of people were working over time to connect dots.

In terms of the breadth of the threat of Al Qaeda itself – it’s not the only terrorist organization, and it works with others as cells around the world in at least 60 countries. You potentially are talking about tens of thousands of followers who can be conscripted into service to carry out a terrorist plot.