In a going away present to some of his most trusted aides, President Bush has appointed 45 individuals to positions that will expire in the midst of Barack Obama’s term, or afterwards. He has appointed 12 individuals to 5-year terms on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, including Joshua Bolten, current White House Chief of Staff, Michael Chertoff, current Secretary of Homeland Security, Elliott Abrams, current Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy, and Michael Mukasey, current U.S. Attorney General. Bush drew criticism for his appointment of Abrams to his current position because of his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal; Abrams was pardoned by Bush Sr. for withholding information from Congress in its 1991 Iran-Contra investigations. Mukasey has also been in the limelight for defending waterboarding, and for famously saying ““not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” in defense of previous Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s politicized hiring and firing practices.