Loretta Lynch: From Durham to Washington, a quiet,
effective career
Loretta Lynch (left) with her mother Lorine Lynch in an
undated photo.
By Anne Blythe
ablythe@newsobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Nov. 17, 2014
As the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y., Loretta
Lynch pushed a host of high-profile cases but somehow managed to stay out of
the media glare herself.
She can’t avoid the spotlight now. Since President Barack Obama put her name forward to lead the U.S. Justice
Department, Lynch has been featured nearly everywhere: Fox News.
MSNBC. The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post.
Magazines. Partisan bloggers.
All have tried to flesh out a broader story of an
accomplished lawyer whose early life was shaped in North Carolina. Lynch, 55,
is a Greensboro native whose family moved to Durham when she was 6.
Her father, a preacher who led churches that played a
powerful role in the civil rights movement, describes his daughter as low-key,
amiable and firm when necessary.
“I think she’s going to be fair. I think she’s going to be
friendly. I think she’s going to be tough,” the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, 82, said
from his Durham home.
The resilience that family and colleagues have cited as one of Lynch’s attributes could be tested as she goes through a confirmation process that could be as much about partisan politics as it is about her work history.
Poised to be the first African-American woman to run the
huge federal justice department – 116,000 full-time employees and an annual
budget of $27 billion – Lynch has twice been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“She’s got an excellent background,” said Henry Frye, the
first black N.C. Supreme Court chief justice, a Greensboro resident and
longtime family friend of the Lynches. “I’ve never heard anything negative
about her.”
But that might change in the coming weeks as partisan
loyalists dig for details.
Outside Washington’s politically divided Beltway, Lynch has
gone up against some tough adversaries.
In the U.S. attorney’s office she has led since 2010, she
has helped put terrorists, gangsters and white-collar criminals behind bars.
Before her first stint as a U.S. attorney there from 1999 to 2001, she drew
attention for her work on a 1999 case against New York City police officers
accused of sodomizing a Haitian immigrant with a broken broomstick inside their
headquarters.
It remains to be seen how she will do against Senate
Republicans who long have objected to Eric Holder’s stands on such issues as
civilian trials for terror suspects, voter ID laws and immigration reform.
Public statements she has made and responses to
questionnaires she has filled out as the top prosecutor in the Eastern District
of New York show her to have views similar to Holder.
Though Obama announced her a little more than a week ago with predictions of a quick confirmation in the lame-duck congressional session, some Senate Republicans have called for a moratorium on new presidential appointments until early next year, when the party will have control of the chamber.
Off to Harvard
Lynch is no stranger to politics.
Her father ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Durham
before she left home for Harvard University. She stuffed envelopes and answered
phones.
Lorenzo Augustus Lynch Sr., a native of Oak City in the
northeastern part of the state, said last week that he always preached to “let
your children follow their dreams.”
So he kept his thoughts to himself when his daughter, one of
three valedictorians of the Durham High School class of 1977, turned down a
full scholarship to an in-state school to go to Harvard.
She majored in English and delighted in reading Chaucer in
Old English. When she received a degree with honors from the Ivy League school,
she told her father, a pastor paid not quite $40,000 a year, that she wanted to
go to law school there. He again didn’t stand in the way, but he helped pay
tuition and bills.
“I didn’t know she was interested in the law until she
graduated cum laude,” Lorenzo Lynch said last week.
As a child in Durham, Loretta Lynch showed a keen interest in books. The family lived off Fayetteville Street near White Rock Baptist Church, where her father served as the pastor for 27 years before a bitter ouster in 1993.
Lynch and her two brothers, Lorenzo Jr., now deceased, and
Leonzo, a minister in Charlotte at Ebenezer Baptist Church, made regular trips to the public library branch a
block away.
“They were bookworms, all three of them,” the elder Lynch
said. “People used to always tell me that they would see them walking along
with a stack of books in their arms. They would tell me they carried books
taller than they were. I couldn’t tell you what they were reading.”
Lorine Lynch, mother of the three, was a librarian who
started life as a farmhand, a story her daughter recalled at her first
swearing-in ceremony as U.S. attorney.
Mother and daughter stood beside each other decades earlier
during the strife of the civil rights movement, when Lynch, new to Durham,
scored extremely high on a standardized test at a predominantly white school.
“She did so well, they said, ‘This is wrong, you have to
retake the test,’ ” her father recalled. “She took it again, and do you
know, she scored even higher.”
Lynch grew up in Durham at a time when there were citywide sit-ins,
marches and rallies for equal rights and integration of the schools.
At Durham High, she not only was a stellar student, she participated in the Beta Club, a literary group and an honor society. She had an afterschool job at a fast-food restaurant, her father said, and she was a fabulous seamstress who not only made outfits for herself, but stitched clothes for her mother for special banquets and other occasions.
Though she finished at the top of her high school class, her
father said, school officials decided she had to share the title of
valedictorian with three other students – one of whom was white.
Support from the president
That story of being a black woman in America, blazing new
paths over the stumbling blocks of adversity, is one that Lynch typically lets
others tell.
Obama, when introducing her at the White House on Nov. 8,
pointed out that Lynch was born in Greensboro a year before the lunch-counter
sit-in by students who organized in the church her father pastored.
“Loretta rode on her father’s shoulders to his church, where
students would meet to organize anti-segregation boycotts,” Obama told those
gathered at the ceremony attended by her surviving brother. “She was inspired
by stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper in the 1930s, who helped folks
in his community who got in trouble with the law and had no recourse under the
Jim Crow system.”
In addition to her brother, Lynch was joined at the White
House ceremony last weekend by her husband, Stephen Hargrove, whom she married
in 2007, and two stepchildren, Ryan and Kia.
“If I have the honor of being confirmed by the Senate, I will wake up every morning with the protection of the American people my first thought,” Lynch said at the ceremony. “And I will work every day to safeguard our citizens, our liberties, our rights and this great nation, which has given so much to me and my family.”
Nan Aaron, president of the Alliance for Justice, which
represents a coalition of 100 liberal groups, cheered the prospect of Lynch’s
nomination in a statement. “We are confident that Lynch will build on Holder’s strong
legacy of standing up for civil rights and ensuring equal justice for all
Americans,” she said. “We call on Ms. Lynch to take a leading role in
addressing the Supreme Court’s repeated efforts to deny access to the courts
and the ballot box.”
Questions will come
Lynch, Obama has said, is someone who “battles drug lords
and mobsters and terrorists and still has the charming reputation for being a
charming people person.”
Her office has gone after public corruption in both parties
and touched on the gamut of cases that go through the courts.
After leaving her first stint as the U.S. attorney in
Brooklyn, she became a partner at Hogan & Hartson, a giant firm that specializes
in corporate, financial and regulatory law.
In recent weeks, she has overseen cases that deal with
allegations of money-laundering, sexual abuse at an Army base, murder, a faked
death, extortion by a union delegate, illegal distribution of Oxycodone by a
doctor, an investment scheme scam and more.
She has pressed ahead with the prosecution of Rep. Michael
Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island accused of wire and mail fraud, filing
false tax returns, hiring undocumented immigrants and perjury.
Critics such as Hans von Spakovsky of The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies have seized on statements made by Lynch to describe her as “another Eric Holder.”
She has spoken in support of the U.S. Justice Department
lawsuit against North Carolina and the 2013 election law overhaul.
“Fifty years since the civil rights struggle we stand at a
time when we see people trying to take back what Martin
Luther King Jr. fought for,”
Lynch said to an audience in Long Beach, N.Y. “People try and take over the
state house and reverse the gains made in voting in this country.”
She has spoken out against zero-tolerance school discipline
policies and explained her concerns about an uneven application of the death
penalty.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, and Mike Lee, a
Republican from Utah, plan to have her quizzed on whether she believes the
president’s executive amnesty plans and talk of using his executive power to
impose an immigration program are constitutional and legal.
Lorenzo Lynch said he thinks his daughter is up for the job
and will respond to questions with her usual fashion – with dignity and a
passion for justice.
“Did you hear what President Obama said about her?” the
proud father said. “She seems to make a difference but doesn’t make a splash.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther
King Jr. was a pastor for the Ebenezer
Baptist Church (Atlanta), and a friend of Otis Moss Jr.
Note: Otis Moss Jr. was
a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., a
pastor for the Ebenezer Baptist Church
(Atlanta), a trustee at Morehouse
College, and is Otis Moss III’s
father.
Otis
Moss III is Otis Moss Jr’s son,
a pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and a trustee at the Morehouse College.
Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is a senior pastor at the Trinity United
Church of Christ (Chicago), and was a member of the African American
Religious Leadership Committee.
African
American Religious Leadership Committee was an advisory group for
the 2008 Barack Obama presidential
campaign.
Trumpeter
Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity
United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Louis Farrakhan
was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter
Newsmagazine, is the organizer for the Million Man March, and the acting head for the Nation of
Islam.
Oprah
Winfrey was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ
(Chicago), and a friend of Rufus
Williams.
Barack
Obama was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Rahm
I. Emanuel is Ari Emanuel’s
brother, a member of the Commercial Club
of Chicago, the Chicago (IL) mayor,
and was the White House chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
Rufus
Williams was the president of the Chicago
(IL) Board of Education, and is a friend of Oprah Winfrey.
Harold Washington
was the Chicago (IL) mayor, and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was his adviser.
Richard
M. Daley was the Chicago (IL) mayor,
Michelle Obama was his staffer, and
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Faith Elizabeth
Gay was an attorney at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is a director at the American
Constitution Society.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society, and the Alliance for Justice.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Janet
Reno is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, and was the attorney general for the
U.S. Department of Justice.
John Durham
Amid allegations that FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen
"The Rifleman" Flemmi had
corrupted their handlers, US Attorney General Janet Reno
named Durham special prosecutor in 1999. He oversaw a task force of FBI agents brought
in from other offices to investigate the Boston office's
handling of informants.[5]
In 2002, Durham helped secure
the conviction of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal racketeering
charges for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to
flee just before the gangster's 1995 indictment.[5]
Durham's task force also
gathered evidence against retired FBI agent H. Paul Rico who
was indicted in Oklahoma on state charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi kill a
Tulsa businessman
in 1981. Rico died in 2004 before the case went to trial.[5]
Durham also led a series of
high-profile prosecutions in Connecticut
against the New England Mafia and corrupt politicians, including former governor John G. Rowland.[5]
In 2008, John Durham was
appointed by then-Attorney General Michael
Mukasey to investigate the destruction
of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.[6]
In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham to lead the Justice Department's investigation of
the legality of CIA interrogation techniques.
Loretta Lynch is
the attorney general nominee for the U.S.
Department of Justice.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
is the attorney general at the U.S.
Department of Justice for the Barack
Obama administration, a trustee at the Morehouse
School of Medicine, appointed John
H. Durham to lead probe into CIA abuse of prisoners, was a board member for
the American Constitution Society, and
a partner at Covington & Burling LLP.
John H. Durham
is appointed by Eric H. Holder Jr.
to lead the probe into CIA abuse of prisoners, and was appointed by Michael B. Mukasey to lead probe into
destruction of CIA interrogation videos.
Raben Group was
the lobby firm for the Morehouse School
of Medicine.
Melody C. Barnes
was a principal for the Raben Group,
and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Robert Raben is
the president of the Raben Group, was
a director at American Constitution
Society, a director at the Alliance
for Justice, and an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Christine A.
Varney is a director at the American
Constitution Society, and was a partner at Hogan & Hartson.
Michael D. Barnes
was a partner at Hogan & Hartson,
the president of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence, and a senior of counsel for Covington & Burling LLP.
Bradford L. Smith
was a partner at Covington & Burling
LLP, and is a member of the Business-Higher
Education Forum.
Robert L. Caret
is a member of the Business-Higher
Education Forum, and the president for the University of Massachusetts.
William M. Bulger
was the president for the University of Massachusetts, and is James J. Bulger’s brother.
James J. Bulger
is William M. Bulger’s brother, the defendant in U.S.
vs. James J. Bulger, was listed on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, and the leader of the Winter Hill
Gang.
James Earl Ray was
listed on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, and is Martin Luther King Jr’s
killer.
Stephen J. Flemmi
is the prosecution witness in U.S. vs.
James J. Bulger, and was the boss for the Winter Hill Gang.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was a partner at Covington & Burling
LLP, a board member at the American
Constitution Society, is a trustee at the Morehouse School of Medicine, the attorney general at the U.S.
Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration, and appointed
John H. Durham to lead probe into CIA abuse of prisoners.
Michael B.
Mukasey was the attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and appointed John H. Durham to lead the probe into destruction of CIA
interrogation videos.
Louis W. Sullivan
was the president of the Morehouse
School of Medicine, and is an Oak
Bluffs (MA) homeowner.
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, Valerie B. Jarrett’s
great uncle, a senior counsel for Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, Antoinette Cook Bush’s stepfather, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and was Mayor
Richard M. Daley’s deputy chief of staff.
Richard M. Daley
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, was the Chicago (IL) mayor,
Michelle Obama was his staffer, and Valerie B. Jarrett was his deputy chief
of staff.
Charles C. Adams
Jr. is a partner at Akin, Gump,
Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, was a partner at Hogan & Hartson, a fundraiser for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Corinthian
Colleges.
African
American Religious Leadership Committee was an advisory group for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.
Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was a member of the African American
Religious Leadership Committee, and is a senior pastor at the Trinity
United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Antoinette Cook
Bush is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s stepdaughter, and was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
LLP.
Patrick J.
Fitzgerald is a partner at Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, monitoring sale and closure of
colleges for the Corinthian Colleges,
a trustee at the University of Illinois,
was the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois for the U.S.
Department of Justice, investigated
Osama Bin Laden, and the prosecutor for U.S. vs. Antoin Rezko.
Stanley O.
Ikenberry was the president for the University
of Illinois, and the president of the American
Council on Education.
Robert L. Caret
is a director at the American Council on
Education, a member of the Business-Higher
Education Forum, and the
president for the University of Massachusetts.
William M. Bulger
was the president for the University of Massachusetts, and is James J. Bulger’s brother.
Osama Bin Laden
was listed on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Antoin Rezko was
the defendant in U.S. vs. Antoin Rezko,
Allison S. Davis’s business partner,
and Barack Obama was a contributor.
Barack Obama was a
contributor for Antoin Rezko, and
an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
Allison S. Davis
was Antoin Rezko’s business partner,
and a partner at Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
Carol Moseley
Braun was an attorney at Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a contributor for Antoin Rezko, and Harold
Washington’s spokesman.
Judson H. Miner
is a partner at Miner, Barnhill & Galland, was a fundraiser for the 2008
Barack Obama presidential campaign,
counsel for Harold Washington, and the
corporation counsel for Chicago (IL).
Harold Washington
was the Chicago (IL) mayor, and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was his adviser.
Jeremiah A.
Wright Jr. was Harold Washington’s
adviser, and is the senior pastor for the Trinity
United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Barack Obama was a
parishioner for the Trinity United
Church of Christ (Chicago).
Oprah Winfrey was
a parishioner for the Trinity United
Church of Christ (Chicago).
Trumpeter
Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity
United Church of Christ (Chicago).
Louis Farrakhan
was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter
Newsmagazine, is the organizer for the Million Man March, and the acting head for the Nation of
Islam.
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