WASHINGTON (AP) – Justice Department evaluators have given mostly high ratings to the management skills of Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general, in a report made public five days before she faces a Senate confirmation hearing.
The evaluation depicts Lynch, currently the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as a hands-on manager who personally reviews all indictments, meets regularly with top staff and helps make decisions on major cases. The report found no significant morale problems within the office and called her “exceptionally well-qualified” for her current job.
“She is bright, articulate and charismatic and is truly an exemplar of efficient stewardship and managerial excellence,” the evaluation states. It was written by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, an arm of the Justice Department whose responsibilities include peer reviews of prosecutors’ office.
But the review also identified areas for improvement, including the office’s responsiveness to public records requests made under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The report, released Friday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been requested by the committee chairman, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. Obama nominated Lynch in November to succeed outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder. Her confirmation hearings are set for Wednesday and Thursday before Grassley’s panel, and the full Senate also must approve her appointment.
Lynch is not expected to face major hurdles during the confirmation process, though in the new Republican-majority Senate some lawmakers already have signaled that they plan to question her aggressively on whether she’ll support Obama’s executive action on illegal immigration. They’ll also likely be looking for assurances of a greater rapport with Lynch than they’ve had with Holder, who often clashed with Republicans during trips to Capitol Hill and was even held in contempt by the House over a document dispute.
Lynch since 2010 has been the top prosecutor for a district that includes Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, having also held that role from 1999 to 2001. As a prosecutor, she was best known for her prosecution of the four New York police officers charged with violating the civil rights of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was beaten and sodomized while in custody.
The evaluation said Lynch’s office meets most Justice Department standards, including caseload for prosecutors, professional responsibility and budget management.
But the report also found that Lynch’s office does not effectively supervise its FOIA program, does not timely respond to requests for records and does not conduct regular training on the topic for its staff. The office has a “substantial backlog of requests,” and the designated FOIA contact has never attended recommended training, the report said.
____
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP