Legal News

It?s Official: Obama to Tap Boss Fan Bharara for SDNY Post

By Ashby Jones

It’s been just about the worst kept secret in the world, that Preet Bharara, the chief counsel to Senator Chuck Schumer and a former assistant U.S. attorney, had the inside track to become the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

Well, Friday afternoon it became official: Obama “announced his intent” to put Bharara in the seat. The brief bio on Bharara: He’s served as Schumer's chief counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee since 2005. He oversaw the congressional investigation into the Bush administration's firings of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006, which led to the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Prior to that, Bharara was an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan for five years, where he brought criminal cases against Italian-American mobsters and Asian gangs in New York City. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School and is reported to listen to Springsteen while locking up the bad guys.

Said Schumer, in a statement: "I believe Preet Bharara will be one of the most outstanding U.S. Attorneys that the Southern District, or any other, has ever had. He is smart, hardworking, focused, and unafraid to proceed wherever the facts of a case may lead."

Obama announced his intention to nominate other U.S. attorneys too, including:

• District of Vermont: Tristram Coffin, 46 (Wesleyan, Columbia Law)
• Western District of Washington: Jenny Durkin, 51 (Notre Dame, University of Washington Law)
• District of New Jersey: Paul Fishman, 52 (Princeton, Harvard Law)
• District of New Hampshire: John Paul Kacavas, 48 (St. Michael’s, Boston College Law)
• Northern District of Alabama: Joyce White Vance, 48 (Bates, UVA Law)

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).