On Tuesday a commission of 17 members will begin considering candidates for the next U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
With all due respect to Police Chief Cathy Lanier and FBI boss Joe Persechini and many of the lawmen in neighboring counties, the chief federal prosecutor in the capital city has the most clout. He or she can decide who and how to prosecute, from street drug dealers in D.C. to terrorists planning to bomb an embassy in Africa.
The U.S. attorney here has more reach than any federal prosecutor in the nation; the D.C. office is also the country’s largest.
So the deliberations that begin Tuesday with the Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission and culminate in a nomination by President Barack Obama will have a far-reaching effect on our daily lives on city streets and on the war on terror.
There are at least five candidates. All have worked for the U.S. attorney’s office here. Among them are: Ron Machen, now with Wilmer Hale; Roy Austin, who is back with the prosecutor’s office after a stint in private practice; Anjali Chaturvedi, who worked as a federal prosecutor here and in San Francisco and now works for Nixon Peabody; Shanlon Wu, now in private practice; and Channing Phillips, principal assistant to current U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, the outgoing Bush nominee.
Two top prospects took another path. Monte Wilkinson moved up to become a counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder; DeMaurice “De” Smith became executive director of the NFL Players Association.
All of the applicants have strong resumes, but the clear favorite among line prosecutors, cops, local politicians — and probably Holder — is Channing Phillips. The 51-year-old prosecutor is in the mold of Holder. Both are native Washingtonians, both have spent their lives in public service, both have a deep commitment to keeping the city safe.
Holder hired Phillips as a line prosecutor in 1994. Phillips has been a federal prosecutor for the past 15 years; since 1997 he has worked for on the management side as spokesman and special counsel and chief of staff and now principal assistant to the U.S. attorney.
Choosing Phillips would make sense on many levels. On the stability side, the prosecutor’s office has run well under Taylor and Phillips. Brad Weinsheimer has worked with Phillips to bring cops and prosecutors closer together in Superior Court cases. Phillips and FBI Director Robert Mueller worked together when Mueller was a federal prosecutor here.
Washingtonians will remember the Rev. Channing Phillips, the prosecutor’s father. The first Channing was a champion of civil rights, an early advocate of Home Rule, a candidate for Congress, and the first African American placed in nomination for president by a major political party. He died in 1987, long before his son succeeded on his own account, but the heart of a public servant passed down.
The other major player in determining the next top prosecutor is D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. She has worked well with Phillips — and Holder and Obama.
The stars seem aligned for Phillips, and that’s a good sign for D.C.
