Rush-Henrietta, UR grad Robert Khuzami heading the investigation into Trump's lawyer Cohen

A key figure in the criminal investigation into the lawyer and "fixer" for President Donald Trump is a federal prosecutor — and the son of ballroom dancers — who grew up in the Rochester area and attended the University of Rochester.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami is the lead prosecutor in the controversial investigation of lawyer Michael Cohen, who is alleged to have made payoffs to women and men to silence their claims of Trump's alleged past adulterous infidelities.

Khuzami is a federal prosecutor specializing in financial crimes in the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office, which is based in Manhattan. Geoffrey Berman, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, recused himself from the investigation and appointed Khuzami to the task.

A son of a couple that taught ballroom dancing at Allendale Columbia School and also a graduate of the University of Rochester, Khuzami finds himself at the center of a political maelstrom: Trump supporters perceive the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt that ignores lawyer-client confidentiality, while Trump opponents hope the investigation will reveal salacious and possibly impeachable facts about our current president.

Khuzami declined to comment for this story through a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

MORE: Judge denies Trump's bid to review records seized in FBI raid

Rush-Henrietta graduate

Khuzami's parents, the late Victor Khuzami and Adele Khuzami, taught dance classes from 1962 until 1985 at Allendale Columbia School under their professional names, Jay and Adele Victor, according to Victor Khuzami's 1995 obituary. Victor Khuzami was a World War II veteran who fought at Battle of the Bulge.

Robert Khuzami graduated from Rush-Henrietta Senior High School in 1974 and from the University of Rochester in 1979. At the University of Rochester, Khuzami received a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, with a double major in political science and philosophy.

His siblings, Richard and Vicki Khuzami, both live in New York City.

Khuzami "was elected Phi Beta Kappa at Rochester while working a variety of jobs on loading docks and painting crews to pay his living expenses and to save money for law school," according to a 2009 article in the University of Rochester Alumni Gazette.

Khuzami addressed the Republican National Convention in 2004, supporting President Bush and the anti-terrorism Patriot Act. As a federal prosecutor, Khuzami secured the conviction of Omar Ahmed Ali Abdel Rahman in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Khuzami has experience with the caprice of political winds. He headed the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission for four years during the Obama administration, prosecuting financial crimes.

Then, some liberals complained that the SEC was not doing enough to punish Wall Street wrongdoers, while now some more conspiratorial conservative websites see Khuzami's investigation of Cohen as proof of a "deep state" Obama-linked attack on the president.

Both Cohen and Trump have claimed that the recent FBI raid on Cohen's office, home, and hotel room was an assault on lawyer-client confidentiality. Prosecutors say that Cohen acted more as a "fixer" for Trump — stamping out unseemly rumors or allegations about the president.

GCRAIG@Gannett.com