Washington circles are buzzing with speculation that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton had a hand in choosing President Barack Obama's most likely nomination to be the next U.S. attorney general, New York federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch.
The Daily Caller
bluntly stated, "An MSNBC host [another of Sharpton's vocations] may have just chosen the next attorney general of the United States."
A pattern of recent meetings between the principals involved lends credence to the claim.
Sharpton met with Obama at the White House the day after the midterm Election Day, but administration officials would not confirm the meeting agenda included a discussion of who might fill the shoes of departing Attorney General Eric Holder.
In a press conference following the meeting, Obama would say only, "We have a number of outstanding candidates who we're taking a look at now," adding that a nomination would come "in due course,"
The Hill reported.
"I'm confident that we'll find somebody who is well-qualified, will elicit the confidence of the American people, will uphold their constitutional obligations of rule of law and will get confirmed by the Senate," The Hill reported that Obama said.
The Daily Caller noted that Sharpton met with Lynch, 55, at her office in late August, along with Esaw Garner, the wife of an alleged New York Police Department brutality victim.
Lynch, the Daily Caller notes, a Harvard Law School graduate, was appointed by Obama in 2010 as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and also appointed to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which brought her into close contact with Holder.
Last week, Lynch sat next to Holder at a Brooklyn appearance and U.S. District Judge Carol Amon said, "We all hope that the 83rd attorney general is in this room — someone who may be wearing a little orange thing," the color of Lynch's jacket,
Fox News reported.
Holder visited Lynch in her New York office on Oct. 30,
The Washington Post reported.
Given the Tuesday Republican takeover of the Senate, there is little time for Obama to replace Holder while the Democrat Senate majority still holds sway. Holder told the Washington Post there would be a nomination "shortly after the election" and that he hoped the Senate would speed confirmation "so that by early February we'll have a new attorney general."
When Holder resigned in September, Sharpton caused a furor when he announced, "We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder,"
Business Insider reported.
Later, he backed off the statement, telling Business Insider, "We did not say we are in the decision making. We are in conversation to reach out to them to have meetings about what we want to see in a successor."
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