The White House is wasting no time making its case for President Obama’s choice to replace Eric Holder as attorney general.
Ahead of an official ceremony nominating U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to the key Cabinet post Saturday morning, the White House Office of Public Engagement began circulating talking points among supporters stressing Lynch’s “decades of experience as a lawyer and a leader.”
“Loretta Lynch is a strong, independent, and aggressive prosecutor who has a reputation for fairness and justice,” the talking points stress, according to a copy obtained by the Washington Examiner.
If confirmed by the Senate, Lynch would be the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general, and Holder reportedly encouraged the White House to consider her as his replacement.
It’s rare for a U.S. attorney to be appointed to the top post at the Justice Department, a point Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee made in a statement reacting to her nomination Friday night.
The memo appears aimed at silencing early critics and touting her extensive experience prosecuting high profile cases in one of the most important U.S. attorney offices in New York.
It also highlights Lynch’s unanimous Senate confirmation to be U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York on two separate occasions and her tough prosecution of terrorism, financial fraud, and organized crime case, while remaining “a staunch supporter of civil rights.”
“Lynch has a distinguished record of success prosecuting major cases and protecting our national security: she has aggressively pursued terrorists, she has prosecuted a range of financial fraud and cybercrime cases, and she has vigorously defended our civil rights,” the talking points state.
One of Lynch’s main strengths that positions her well for Senate confirmation is that she would be a fresh face in the administration and someone who is not too closely tied to the Obama administration and doesn’t have a record of defending Obama’s policies.
Lynch, a U.S. attorney based in Brooklyn, gained recognition as a top prosecutor in a high-profile police brutality case involving a white New York police officer sodomizing a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, with a broken broomstick in 1997.
In the years since, she has prosecuted several terrorism cases and currently leads the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a group of U.S. attorneys who weigh in on top-level Justice Department policy decisions.
