Lynch to Cast Herself as Departure From Holder in Bid to Be Attorney General

New York Times

By Carl Hulse and Matt Apuzzo

January 28, 2015

Lynch to Cast Herself as Departure From Holder in Bid to Be Attorney General 

Loretta E. Lynch on Wednesday will cast herself as an apolitical career prosecutor who is a departure from Eric H. Holder Jr. when she faces a new Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee that includes some of the administration’s fiercest critics in Congress.

If she is confirmed, Ms. Lynch would be the nation’s first African-American woman to serve as attorney general. Her allies have sought to differentiate her from Mr. Holder, an outspoken liberal voice in the administration who clashed frequently with Republicans who accused him of politicizing the office.

In particular, Ms. Lynch is expected to face tough questioning about her opinion of the president’s decision to unilaterally ease the threat of deportation for millions of unauthorized immigrants. Mr. Holder approved the legal justification for that action, enraging some Republicans.

Ms. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, will say that while she had no role in compiling the justification for the president’s action, the legal underpinning was reasonable, according to officials involved in her preparation. Anticipating queries about executive overreach, Ms. Lynch is prepared to say she would treat the Constitution as her “lodestar” in advising the president, the officials said.

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the new Republican chairman of the committee, has promised to allow a thorough airing of questions from lawmakers on both sides.

Besides Mr. Grassley, Republican committee members include Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and David Vitter of Louisiana, all of whom have expressed outrage over the president’s actions on immigration and his exercise of executive power in general. Mr. Vitter has already said he will oppose Ms. Lynch’s nomination, and Mr. Sessions has said he has strong reservations.

“I did express at one point serious concerns about anyone who would support the president’s executive amnesty,” Mr. Sessions said. “That is a big concern for me.”

Ms. Lynch needs at least three Republican members of the panel to vote for her to send her nomination to the floor. Democrats see Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona as those most likely to support her, but they said she could win over other Republicans as well.

Mr. Flake said he had made no decision on Ms. Lynch but had come away with a favorable impression and expected that she would be confirmed. Mr. Graham said he, too, had found her well qualified.

“On paper she is a good choice and I like her personally, but she is going to have some hard questions,” Mr. Graham said.

Foreshadowing a possible theme of the hearing, law enforcement veterans used a conference call with reporters on Tuesday to differentiate Ms. Lynch from Mr. Holder and his political fights on Capitol Hill.

“Attorney General Holder has been a lightning rod for some of those conversations and debates,” Jamie S. Gorelick, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, said. “At this stage in the department’s life, it would be really wonderful for it to get back to the business of justice and not be distracted by political fights and the debates of the day as much as it has been.”

William J. Bratton, the New York City police commissioner, said Ms. Lynch was a strong candidate to take over the Justice Department at a time of great tension between minority communities and law enforcement. After the deadly police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., last summer, Mr. Holder upset some law enforcement groups with comments that they saw as unsupportive.

Though Mr. Bratton did not mention Mr. Holder directly, he praised Ms. Lynch for not “coming into this with any preconceived notions.”

“It’s going to be critical that the person in this position be able to see both the police position on some of these issues, as well as the community position,” he said.

Ms. Lynch, 55, the daughter of a North Carolina pastor who was active in the civil rights movement, has spent nearly all of her career as a prosecutor. She is to be accompanied by her father and brother on Wednesday.

Officials said Ms. Lynch was expected to testify that she sought a strong working relationship with Congress. She will also try to underscore her record of prosecuting terror suspects — her office has handled the most in the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to one official. That is likely to lead to questioning from Mr. Graham and Mr. Sessions, both of whom have been critical of the use of the civilian legal system to prosecute terrorism suspects.

Cybersecurity has been an early and special interest of Ms. Lynch, who established a unit dedicated to the crime in New York. Officials say she intends to make that an “enhanced priority” of the Justice Department if she becomes attorney general.

Ms. Lynch, nominated in early November, has had to wait for a hearing as Republicans organized themselves as the Senate majority after eight years out of power. Even if she does not encounter trouble at the committee level, it will probably be weeks before she can be confirmed, perhaps as late as March, given the calendar and that Republicans are not hurrying.

That some Republicans will need to support her if she is to advance also changes the dynamic for lawmakers who in recent years could sit back and let Democrats move the president’s nominees. But Republicans also argue that a change is merited at the Justice Department.

“We need an attorney general,” Mr. Graham said. “If not her, who?”

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