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Brooklyn experience prepares Loretta Lynch for Attorney General role

President Obama Calls Eastern District One of the Country’s ‘Most Prominent’

November 10, 2014 By Charisma L. Troiano, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Attorney Loretta Lynch pauses as she speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Saturday, where President Barack Obama announced that he will nominate her to replace Attorney General Eric Holder. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
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President Barack Obama has announced Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch for his pick for the next U.S.  attorney general. If confirmed, Lynch will be the first African-American woman to hold this position, following the tenure of current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder — the first African-American male in that role.

“I can think of no better public servant to be our next attorney general,” Obama said at a White House press conference Saturday.  

Lynch has served as Brooklyn’s top federal prosecutor since 2010 after a stint in the office in 1999. As U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Lynch’s jurisdiction covers Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and Brooklyn, where its primary courthouse sits. 

Lynch, a graduate of Harvard‘s undergraduate and law school programs, began her career in the Eastern District in 1990 and quickly rose up the ranks to chief assistant U.S. attorney in 1998.

As she was becoming well known for her work on civil rights, Lynch headed the team that prosecuted NYPD officers on police brutality charges for the attack on Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

“One of her proudest achievements was the civil rights prosecution of officers involved in the brutal assault of a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima,” Obama said Saturday.  Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson also worked on the prosecution’s team. 

In 1999, then President Bill Clinton nominated Lynch to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District — a position she held until 2001.

“[Loretta has] twice headed one of the most prominent U.S. attorney’s offices in the country,” noted Obama, who nominated Lynch for the job again in 2010. 

In Brooklyn, Obama added, Lynch gained experience “aggressively fighting terrorism,” “boldly going after public corruption” and “[jailing] some of New York’s most violent and notorious mobsters and gang members.”

With Lynch at the helm, the Eastern District has secured the guilty plea of a man accused of attempting to join the terrorist group al-Qaeda, brought charges against Brooklyn state Sen. John Sampson (D) and most recently against U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island).

Last year, Lynch’s office prosecuted a rare death penalty case of gang member Ronell Wilson in the shooting death of two police officers.

“It’s pretty hard to find anyone more qualified for [attorney general] than Loretta,” said the president. “[Lynch] has a fierce commitment to equal justice under the law.” 

Taking to the podium Saturday, Lynch thank her colleagues whose “strength and wisdom I lean on every day,” and gave particular recognition to her Brooklyn professional family and the lessons gained in the courthouse on Cadman Plaza.

“My beloved office, the Eastern District of New York, my professional home. You have twice now given me the privilege of being able to serve you and to focus on nothing but the protection of the American people,” Lynch said. “It has been a joy. It has been an honor. And I will carry you with me wherever I go.” 

It is unclear when Lynch’s confirmation hearings will be held. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell recommended that the hearings “should be considered in the new Congress through regular order,” rather than the lame-duck Congress following November’s midterm elections.  Sen. Charles Schumer of New York added that Lynch’s confirmation should be “swift.”

“Ms. Lynch is a strong, independent prosecutor who has twice led one of the most important U.S. attorney’s offices in the country,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. 

“I pledge to…the American people that if I have the honor of being confirmed by the Senate, I will wake up every morning with the protection of the American people [as] my first thought,” Lynch said Saturday after a standing ovation. “And I will work every day to safeguard our citizens our liberty, our rights and this great nation.”

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