O'Connor appears at Senate confirmation hearing
"I will follow the law, and the law is supreme," O'Connor said during an hourlong Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. A vote has not yet been scheduled.
O'Connor, 40, has been Connecticut U.S. attorney since 2002. He was chief of staff to the U.S. attorney general from April 2007 until November 2007. President Bush nominated him in November to be associate attorney general at the Department of Justice.
If confirmed, O'Connor would be third in line at the Justice Department, overseeing hundreds of attorneys working on civil rights, tax, antitrust and environmental cases. He said he will resign as Connecticut's U.S. attorney if he is confirmed to the new post.
O'Connor was asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I, how he planned to help the Justice Department overcome recent scandals and restore credibility with the public.
O'Connor agreed that these are "difficult times" for the Justice Department. He said he would resign rather than do anything against the best interests of the Justice Department or the American people.
"I believe that all of us in the department ... we have an obligation to keep the reservoir of credibility as high as we found it," O'Connor said.
A spate of high-level resignations last year followed months of accusations that the once-fiercely independent Justice Department was improperly allowing politics to seep into decisions about prosecuting cases and hiring career attorneys. Whitehouse branded it "a hiring process corrupted by politics" at the Justice Department.
"We need independent voices in the leadership of the Department of Justice ... people who will stand up to political pressure from the White House," Whitehouse said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., complained in a statement about a department "shrouded in scandal" and beset by "a crisis of leadership reminiscent of the worst days of Watergate."
A public furor that erupted last year over whether the firings of nine U.S. attorneys were politically motivated marked the beginning of the end for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Conflicting public statements about the ousters led Democrats and Republicans to question his honesty.
Whitehouse asked O'Connor, who had served as chief of staff to Gonzales, whether he had helped Gonzales prepare his testimony for an appearance before the judiciary panel last year.
O'Connor replied that he was "involved generally" in preparing Gonzales for his various appearances.
O'Connor was flanked by several family members, including his wife, Kathleen O'Connor, and their four children, ages 2 to 6. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., praised O'Connor in introductory remarks to the Judiciary Committee.
"It's a proud moment for the state of Connecticut," Larson said.
During O'Connor's tenure in Connecticut, prosecutors successfully convicted a wave of public officials, including former Gov. John G. Rowland, a state lawmaker and the mayors of two of the largest cities. They also have won numerous convictions in a probe of the mob's influence of the trash industry and won record environmental fines against companies.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments