In December 2008, Richardson was nominated for the cabinet-level position of Secretary of Commerce in the first Obama administration[1] but withdrew a month later, as he was being investigated for possible improper business dealings.

[5] Richardson occasionally provided advice on diplomatic issues pertaining to North Korea and visited the nation on several occasions, including efforts to release American detainees.

[6] He completed a number of private humanitarian missions, one of which secured the release of U.S. journalist Danny Fenster from a Myanmar prison in November 2021.

[10] His father, William Blaine Richardson Jr. (1891–1972), who was of Anglo-American and Mexican descent, was an American bank executive from Boston who worked in Mexico for what is now Citibank.

"[8] Richardson, a United States citizen by birth, spent his childhood in a lavish hacienda in Coyoacán's barrio of San Francisco[10][12] where he was raised as a Roman Catholic.

He had met his future wife Barbara (née Flavin) when they were in high school in Concord, Massachusetts, and they married in 1972 following her graduation from Wheaton College.

[33] Richardson also visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests and met with Slobodan Milošević.

In 1997, working alongside Nelson Mandela, he helped negotiate the transfer of power between Mobutu Sese Seko and Laurent-Désiré Kabila at the conclusion of the First Congo War.

[38] The ceasefire he believed he had negotiated with the help of Bruce Riedel of the National Security Council failed to hold;[39] neither was he successful in convincing the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden.

[42] After being fired and spending nine months in solitary confinement as an alleged security risk,[43] Lee was later cleared of espionage charges and released with an apology from the judge.

[44] Eventually, Lee won a $1.6 million settlement against the federal government and several news outlets, including the Times and The Washington Post, for the accusation.

[45][46] Richardson was also criticized by the United States Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry, which involved missing computer hard drives containing sensitive data, and for not testifying in front of Congress sooner.

[50] Richardson also directed the overhaul of the department's consultation policy with Native American tribes and established the Tribal Energy Program.

He withdrew from these boards after being nominated by the Democratic Party for governor of New Mexico, but retained considerable stock holdings in Valero and Diamond Offshore.

[54] Richardson was on the board of directors of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD),[55] which was created after the 2011 Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

However, he was opposed to same-sex marriage, and he faced criticism for his use of the anti-gay slur maricón on Don Imus's morning radio show in March 2006.

On December 7, 2006, Secretary General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza named Richardson his Special Envoy for Hemispheric Affairs with the mandate to "promote dialogue on issues of importance to the region, such as immigration and free trade".

[61] As Richardson discussed frequently during his 2008 run for president, he supported a controversial New Mexico law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses for reasons of public safety.

In December 2005, Richardson announced the intention of New Mexico to collaborate with billionaire Richard Branson to bring space tourism to the proposed Spaceport America located near Las Cruces.

[64] In March 2006, Richardson vetoed legislation that would ban the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers, as allowed by the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London.

On September 7, 2006, Richardson flew to Sudan to meet President Omar Al-Bashir and successfully negotiated the release of imprisoned journalist Paul Salopek.

[84] Richardson was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election but dropped out on January 10, 2008, after lackluster showings in the first primary and caucus contests.

[94] On January 4, 2009, Richardson withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary nominee because of the federal grand jury investigation into pay-to-play allegations.

[2] The New York Times had reported in late December that the grand jury investigation issue would be raised at Richardson's confirmation hearings.

[100] In 2019 it was revealed that Richardson was among those named in court documents from a civil suit between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

In 1996, he accompanied U.S. State Department officials and successfully negotiated the release of Evan Hunziker, the first American civilian to be arrested by North Korea on espionage charges since the end of the Korean War.

[109] In January 2013, he led a delegation to North Korea of business leaders, including Google chair Eric Schmidt shortly after the state launched an orbital rocket.

In March 2016, at the request of Ohio Governor John Kasich, Richardson unsuccessfully negotiated for the release of Cincinnati college student Otto Warmbier, who had been detained on a visit to North Korea.

[113] In November 2021, Richardson undertook a mission to Myanmar, where he negotiated with military junta head Min Aung Hlaing and secured the release of U.S. journalist Danny Fenster from an 11-year prison sentence.

[114][115][7] Shortly before his death, Richardson was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by four Democratic senators for his role in hostage diplomacy seeking the release of 15 political prisoners, including professional basketball player Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed.