President Barack Obama has nominated Brooklyn's top federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to become the country's next Attorney General. If confirmed by the Congress, Lynch's appointment will make her the first African-American woman to assume the office.
At a White House ceremony on Saturday, Lynch and current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. joined the President in the Roosevelt Room for the announcement. Obama described Lynch as a strong, independent lawyer and says no public servant is more qualified than her.
"She has spent years in the trenches as a prosecutor, aggressively fighting terrorism, financial fraud, cybercrime - all while vigorously defending civil rights," said the President. "I couldn't be more proud to nominate Loretta Lynch as our next attorney general."
Lynch, who is known for the quiet, low-profile manner in which she conducts herself in public, has deep ties to the justice department and has served as federal prosecutor two times. In 1999, she was appointed by President Clinton as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island, and was confirmed by the Senate. She left for private practice in 2001 and returned to the position in 2010, when Obama re-appointed her to the office.
Known as a civil rights defender, Lynch's star first rose to prominence when she became part of the team that successfully prosecuted members of the New York City Police Department for sexually abusing Haitian Abner Louima in 1997 with a broomstick, a high-profile case that shook up racial relations as it involved a black man and white police officers and brought to light the police brutality that was taking place behind the "blue wall of silence."
"Don't let these defendants push us back to the day when police officers could beat people with impunity and arrest people for no reason and lie to cover it up," Lynch said during her closing argument in 1999.
Her work includes a variety of cases, including sexual harassment charges against a New York City councilman, which she says is one of the most significant cases she handled. In recent weeks, Lynch successfully prosecuted six corporate executives for a $500 million offshore fraud, mobsters responsible for a murder ten years ago, a man who stole Social Security numbers and filed thousands of fake tax returns, a banker who faked his death, and a doctor for selling painkillers illegally, among others. Currently, Lynch is working on a tax evasion case against Republican Rep. Michael Grimm, who was re-elected in last week's elections.
Lynch's nomination also sends a signal to the American civil rights movement calling for the criminal prosecution of a Ferguson police officer in the shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown in an encounter with the authorities.
As a two-time U.S. attorney, Lynch was confirmed twice by Congress and has no personal ties to the President, suggesting that she might likely receive the support of the bipartisan Congress. Moreover, prominent Republicans have expressed their hope that the apolitical Lynch, who had prosecuted members of both political parties, would "restore confidence" in the office of the U.S. attorney general.
Republicans have constantly criticized Holder, a close confidante of the President. Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee said the current attorney general "had repeatedly demonstrated a lack of commitment to enforcing the laws, but more fundamentally, a lack of respect for the constitutional separation of powers."
"I look forward to learning more about her, how she will interact with Congress and how she proposes to lead the department," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, who will lead the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I'm hopeful that her tenure, if confirmed, will restore confidence in the attorney general as a politically independent voice for the American people."
It is not clear how Congress will move to confirm Lynch's nomination. Republicans have made it clear that they will oppose any move for confirmation during a lame-duck session. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, set to become the new majority leader in January, said the nomination will be considered "through regular order." Democrat Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, current chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the priority was to pass the National Security Agency surveillance bill, likely pushing Lynch's confirmation vote to early next year, during which Holder will leave.
