By Allan Lengel
Ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON – Lanny Breuer, who represented N.Y. Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens in a Congressional probe last year, has been named the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division by President Obama, FederalTimes.com reported.
Breuer, a partner at Covington & Burling in Washington is from the same firm as Atty. Gen. nominee Eric H. Holder Jr.
According to the firm website, Breuer, former special counsel to President Clinton from 1997 to 1999, who is “co-chair of Covington’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group, specializes in white collar criminal and complex civil litigation, internal corporate investigations, congressional investigations, antitrust cartel proceedings, and other matters involving high-profile legal, political, and public relations risks.”
Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s name was bandied about in the halls of the Justice Department as a possible candidate for the post, but nothing obviously materialized. Fitzgerald, who is regarded as a star among prosecutors around the country, could remain in Chicago. Some speculated that the native New Yorker could also get the coveted U.S. Atty. job in New York.
The FederalTimes.com also reported other presidential appointments to Justice: David Kris as Assistant A.G. for national security; Tony West as Assistant A.G. for the civil division, which experienced many problems under the Bush regime; and Christine Varney as Assistant A.G. for the antitrust division.
