AG nominee Lynch faces the Senate this week

WASHINGTON — The scrum of reporters and photographers had begun gathering early outside the offices of Sen. Charles Schumer.

For once, though, the verbose New York Democrat was not the focus of their attention.

It was the demure woman in the dark suit who glided through the press gauntlet, seemingly oblivious to the spotlight and shouted questions. Thirty minutes later, Loretta Lynch was gone, out a back door, gladly ceding the talking and the public stage to the senator.

Last month's scene, drawn from a perfunctory series of Capitol Hill courtesy calls following her nomination to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, was classic Lynch, friends and associates said.

The career federal prosecutor whose reputation for quiet efficiency, a rare species in official Washington, gets her chance before the microphones Wednesday as the Senate begins weighing her nomination for the job as the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

More than a confirmation hearing, the proceeding marks a national introduction of sorts for Lynch, who has served two stints as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York.

While she is no stranger to the Justice Department, where she also has served as chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee — a key counselor on department policy and practice — her profile is less familiar to many in the Senate who will ultimately decide whether she moves from Brooklyn to D.C., to oversee the department's sprawling mission.

"They will meet someone who is extremely thoughtful, very bright and has tremendous dedication,'' said Paul Fishman, the top federal prosecutor in neighboring New Jersey who has known Lynch for about 15 years. "It's always about the work for Loretta, never about her.''

Fishman's comments track a common theme running through a personal journey that started in Greensboro, N.C., the daughter of a Baptist minister and school librarian, to the Ivy League. If confirmed, her entry to the fifth-floor office suite at Justice would mark the first time an African-American woman has held the office.

"Her life represents the American dream,'' said Kings County, N.Y., District Attorney Ken Thompson, who worked with Lynch in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office. "No one gave Loretta anything.''

CLIMBING THE RANKS

Virtually all of Lynch's government career has been spent in the busy trenches of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office, whose jurisdiction also includes Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

Starting as an assistant U.S. attorney, Lynch climbed the ranks, distinguishing herself as a skilled courtroom tactician before her two separate appointments to lead the office, first under President Clinton and nine years later as President Obama's appointee.

Her courtroom victories involved some of the district's most high-profile cases, including the convictions of more than a dozen members of the violent Green Dragons street gang. But none won the notoriety that came with the prosecution of a former New York City police officer who brutalized Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1997.

The horrific attack, carried out in a Brooklyn police precinct bathroom, drew national attention, resulting in the 30-year prison sentence for Justin Volpe. The former officer acknowledged thrusting a broomstick into Louima's rectum.

Thompson, who assisted Lynch in the Volpe prosecution, said that while the case was significant, it also offered a window into Lynch's "selfless'' style.

With much of the nation focused on the case, Thompson said he was "shocked'' when Lynch tapped him, then a young prosecutor, to deliver opening statements in a case that carried so much weight.

"It really was an extraordinary act of selflessness,'' Thompson said. "Not many people would do that. It told me that she was much more interested in doing justice then getting the credit.''

Her work on the case left a deep impression at the defense table as well.

"With her, you never had to watch your back,'' Volpe attorney Marvyn Kornberg said in an interview soon after Lynch's nomination. "What you saw is what you got.''

HOT-BUTTON BACKGROUND

Ironically, the nature of Lynch's most high-profile case — the conduct of police — has again become a flash-point in American law enforcement and will likely prompt questions from the Senate panel about the Justice Department's role in reviewing such cases.

During Holder's tenure, Justice has launched more than 20 reviews of police agencies to determine whether their operations involve a pattern and/or practice of discriminatory enforcement. Separately, federal prosecutors have been weighing controversial actions by white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black suspects in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., both of which have sparked demonstrations across the country.

Last week, U.S. officials said the federal inquiry into the deadly Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown is not likely to result in civil rights charges against former officer Darren Wilson.

Lynch's office is overseeing the Staten Island investigation.

Having twice been confirmed to serve in Brooklyn, there is widespread expectation that Lynch will be approved again — though no one is promising universal agreement on a range of thorny issues, including immigration.

Republicans have threatened to challenge the nominee on President Obama's executive action that would shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a new member of the Judiciary panel, already has raised the issue as a reason to oppose Lynch's nomination.

"We'll have the opportunity to push back on executive amnesty with one of our first major battles: the attorney general nomination," Vitter said in a statement last month. "The attorney general is one of the linchpins to Obama's amnesty plan, and I'll be working to get the new Congress to block this nomination."

The new Republican committee chairman, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, has signaled that he will reserve judgment.

"This was the first time I'd had the opportunity to meet Ms. Lynch,'' Grassley said after a brief chat with the prosecutor last month. "We had a very nice conversation that focused on my priorities as well as priorities she would have as attorney general.''