Loretta Lynch Makes History as 83rd Attorney General
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2015 (UPI) — Loretta Lynch was sworn in as the new U.S. attorney general on Monday, replacing Eric Holder. Lynch, the country’s first African-American woman to serve in the role, had her nomination held up more than five months over politicking in the Senate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s about time,” said Vice President Joe Biden at the swearing in ceremony.
The highly politicized five-month battle to choose Obama’s next attorney general came to a close Thursday when the Senate finally voted 56-43 to confirm Lynch.
But the delay of her nomination neared record-breaking proportions. Republicans leading the Senate refused to bring her nomination up for a vote until Democrats cut a deal on abortion language in an unrelated bill. That legislation passed Wednesday, setting up Thursday’s vote and ending the latest partisan Washington standoff.
Ten Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined Democrats. Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz was the only senator not to vote.
Obama tapped Lynch to replace Attorney General Eric Holder in November and her nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. Still, she waited longer than the seven most recent U.S. attorneys general combined for a vote on the Senate floor, after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on first finishing work on an unrelated bill.
Lynch was first appointed as U.S. attorney by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and again by Obama in 2010.
In 2010, she was confirmed in the Senate by voice vote, meaning her nomination was uncontroversial. She is known for her successful prosecution in 1997 of a white police officer who sodomized Haitian immigrant Abner Louima with a broken broomstick, a case that became a symbol of police brutality.
In her role as U.S. attorney, she oversees cases in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, including many terrorism cases that have given her experience dealing with matters of national security. She also chairs the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a group of U.S. Attorneys who advise the attorney general.
