Zainab Ahmad

In less than 10 years with the Justice Department, Zainab Ahmad, a 2005 graduate of Columbia Law School, has helped convict 13 terrorists (which earned her a flattering profile in The New Yorker), has prosecuted cases against the infamous Bloods gang, and early in her career even went after smugglers in the illegal ivory trade. Ahmad just began to work in Washington, DC., last year at the invitation of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Though the Flynn case has led to a plea agreement, Mueller may have recruited Ahmad in part for her reputation as a riveting presence in court as a trial attorney.