November 10, 2014
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With Eric Holder preparing to step down, President Obama has chosen Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to be the next U.S. attorney general. If confirmed, the 55-year-old Lynch would become the first African-American woman to serve in the post.
Mr. Obama’s selection of Lynch came at the suggestion of Mr. Holder and is a departure from the president’s usual tendency to choose candidates he has a long personal history with. Her selection was an important one, as the next attorney general will face many challenges, including managing counterterrorism initiatives aimed at Islamic State militants, balancing privacy rights against government surveillance efforts, and deciding whether to bring charges in connection with the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Mike Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Lynch is a Harvard-trained lawyer from North Carolina who has followed a fine line of ethics and avoiding controversy during her decades as a prosecutor.
“I’ve worked with her on and off for almost 25 years, and I’ve never seen her lose her temper,” said Alan Vinegrad, who served as Lynch’s chief assistant and is now a lawyer at Covington & Burling.
Lynch’s extensive experience in civil rights, terrorism and corporate fraud cases, as well as her work leading a committee that advises the attorney general on policy issues, could see her tenure being harmonious with that of Mr. Holder.
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Since the 9/11 attacks, Lynch’s office has handled more terrorism prosecutions than most others in the country, including the prosecution of 3 men in connection with a plot to stage suicide attacks on New York City subways in 2009. Her office also successfully prosecuted another man for attempting to bomb the New York Federal Reserve.
“Loretta might be the only lawyer in America who battles mobsters and drug lords and terrorists and still has the reputation for being a charming ‘people person,'” President Obama said in announcing the nomination.
Lynch heralds from a family of preachers and civil rights leaders, including her grandfather, who hid black people unjustly pursued by a local sheriff under his floorboards. Her great-great grandfather was a free black man in North Carolina who re-entered bondage in order to marry her great-great grandmother, who was enslaved.
“I will work every day to safeguard our citizens, our liberties, our rights, and this great nation which have given so much to me and my family,” Attorney General-nominee Lynch said.
to become U.S. Attorney General.
