--- title: Michael Chertoff Endorses Hillary Clinton Over Donald Trump description: Michael Chertoff mocked Donald Trump's performance in the first presidential debate canonical: https://time.com/4516790/michael-chertoff-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-03T17:47:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:32.588Z article:section: Politics og:title: He Once Pursued the Clintons as a Prosecutor. Now He's Backing Hillary og:description: Michael Chertoff mocked Donald Trump's performance in the first debate og:url: https://time.com/4516790/michael-chertoff-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt240fe128a364523a/6988a876f887dc55dfe97a68/gettyimages-464384188.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Jeh Johnson Speaks On Department Of Homeland Security Funding With Former DHS Secretaries og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: He Once Pursued the Clintons as a Prosecutor. Now He's Backing Hillary twitter:description: Michael Chertoff mocked Donald Trump's performance in the first debate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt240fe128a364523a/6988a876f887dc55dfe97a68/gettyimages-464384188.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # He Once Pursued the Clintons as a Prosecutor. Now He's Backing Hillary for President > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d0916be7-1122-4202-8c0a-73cb0d2d06ca&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 3, 2016 5:47 PM UTC  Michael Chertoff, former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), speaks during a news conference with Jeh Johnson, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), and former secretaries of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, not pictured, at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Michael Chertoff, former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), speaks during a news conference with Jeh Johnson, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), and former secretaries of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, not pictured, at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 3, 2016 5:47 PM UTC Michael Chertoff, who was one the lead prosecutor on the Senate’s Whitewater committee that pursued the Clintons in the 1990s, [has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton’s campaign](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-03/clinton-s-former-prosecutor-michael-chertoff-endorses-her) for the White House. The Whitewater scandal centered around Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investments in Arkansas. The Clintons and Chertoff have long been political foes, but in an interview with [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-03/clinton-s-former-prosecutor-michael-chertoff-endorses-her), the former Secretary of Homeland Security said Clinton’s “mistakes”—from Whitewater to using a private email server as Secretary of State—pale in comparison to the larger issue of national security and do not disqualify her for the White House. “People can go back decades and perhaps criticize some of the judgments that were made,” Chertoff said. “That is very, very insignificant compared to the fundamental issue of how to protect the country.” Chertoff has been publicly critical of Republican nominee Donald Trump in the past, signing on to a letter that said Trump would be [“reckless” as commander-in-chief](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/group-of-50-former-gop-national-security-officials-trump-would-be-most-reckless-president-in-american-history/2016/08/08/6715042c-5d9f-11e6-af8e-54aa2e849447%5Fstory.html). Chertoff mocked Trump’s performance in the first presidential debate, and the aftermath. “Not only did he seem at the debate to lose his temper, but to get up at 3:30 a.m. and reach for your smartphone is to me a hysterical reaction,” he said. “If you’re president, the button you reach for is not the Twitter button; it’s the nuclear button.” \[[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-03/clinton-s-former-prosecutor-michael-chertoff-endorses-her)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4516790/michael-chertoff-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4516790/michael-chertoff-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/"},"headline":"He Once Pursued the Clintons as a Prosecutor. 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