Lynch inherits civil rights probes from Holder as attorney general | Reuters

Lynch inherits civil rights probes from Holder as attorney general | Reuters

Related: U.S.

Lynch inherits civil rights probes from Holder as U.S. attorney general

WASHINGTON |
By Richard
Cowan

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/us-usa-justice-lynch-idUSKBN0NI0AP20150427?feedType=nl&feedName=domesticNews

Loretta Lynch testifies during her
Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing to become U.S. attorney general
on Capitol Hill in Washington January 28, 2015.

Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

(Reuters) - A string of deadly confrontations between mostly white police
and black men will be among challenges immediately facing Loretta Lynch when
she is sworn in on Monday as U.S. attorney general.


Lynch, 55, takes over as the country's top law enforcement official after a
weekend that saw thousands of people in Baltimore, Maryland, take to the
streets in mostly peaceful protests over the latest such case. A 25-year-old
black man died a week after being injured while in police custody.

Building on her career as an accomplished federal prosecutor, Lynch takes
over from retiring Attorney General Eric Holder, who served more than six
turbulent years at the head of the Justice Department.

Holder was the first black U.S. attorney general and Lynch becomes the first
black woman to hold the job.

Besides the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, other questionable
encounters between police and black males in recent months have led to unrest
in South Carolina, Missouri, Ohio and New York.


The Justice Department is probing whether excessive force was used against
minorities in violation of their civil rights.


"This whole police community relations situation ... is the civil
rights cause for this generation," said Democratic Representative Elijah
Cummings, whose Baltimore residents want answers about Gray's unexplained
death.

Cummings' remarks on Sunday were broadcast from an interview on CBS program
"Face the Nation."

In recent interviews, Holder has said it should be easier to bring charges
of civil rights violations. He was unable to do this in the case of a Ferguson,
Missouri, police officer who was involved in a fatal shooting in August 2014.



Lowering the legal bar in such cases would need an act of Congress. Whether
Lynch carries on with Holder's effort in that direction is uncertain. She has
promised to pursue a smoother relationship with Congress. Holder often clashed
with Republican lawmakers and was found in contempt of Congress in 2012 for
withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running probe.

SPRAWLING DEPARTMENT

Lynch will preside over a sprawling department made up of 40 organizations
including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an
over-burdened Civil Rights Division, the FBI, the U.S. Parole Commission and
the Anti-Trust Division.

Besides trying to improve community policing, Lynch will face other daunting
problems.

The director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, part of the DOJ,
resigned this month over reports that agents attended sex parties with
prostitutes hired by Colombian drug cartels.



Meanwhile, the agency Lynch is inheriting has recently struck a sterner tone
with financial institutions accused of misconduct.


Lynch will have to tackle settlements pending with banks over the
manipulation of currency markets and charges of helping clients evade U.S.
taxes. Six major banks could settle as soon as May on allegations they
manipulated foreign exchange markets.

Add in the threat of cybersecurity breaches and American citizens seeking to
become Islamic State fighters and Lynch has a full plate.

Attorneys general invariably confront problems that come out of nowhere, as
well, making it one of the highest-profile positions in any administration.

Janet Reno, President Bill Clinton's attorney general from 1993-2001, dealt
with crises including the bombing of an Oklahoma federal building, a deadly
confrontation with the "Branch Davidians" sect in Waco, Texas, and
the arrival in Florida of a young Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, whose custody
battle grew into an international incident.

Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s took on organized crime and union boss Jimmy
Hoffa, while also sending federal marshals to enforce a court order allowing
black civil rights activist James Meredith to attend the University of
Mississippi.

Elliot Richardson resigned during the Watergate-era "Saturday Night
Massacre" and John Ashcroft was in a hospital sick bed in 2004 when top
White House officials reportedly tried but failed to get his approval for a
controversial domestic surveillance program.


Lynch survived a difficult and lengthy Senate confirmation process with most
Republicans voting against her. That may end up being the easiest part of her
run as attorney general.

(Additional reporting by Julia
Edwards and Lindsay
Dunsmuir; Editing by Kevin
Drawbaugh and Frances
Kerry)

COMMENT:

Under the very zionists lawmakers of
Republican those who took money to block the confirmation of AG Lyanch might
take huge money to kill her and take no action against the killers by these zionist lawmakers.
 
This must be  infornmed to the CIA and also FBI to have a watch over the zionist
lawmakers. These zionists are no more reliable and might do any criminal act
against any public servant and or the nation.

When being a lawmaker of such a prestigious
country can take money from the pimps who stand as grantee on behalf of these notorious Zionists to that fact that they would not get the
lyanch killed.

It would be appropriate to ask FBI and CIA
to investigate to find out who the lawmakers who took money from the PIMPS to
block her confirmation.

This is a very serious matter otherwise
why should such a competent nominee’s
nomination  would have been held
in abeyance. Is not it surprising that such a thing was done and even a bill
against her confirmation would have been
legislated to block.

Could there be any cogent reason for such a
stupid thing if something to ensure the money taken is to informthe PIMPS that
nothing can be done in favor of the nomination from beimg blocking her confirmation..

It was to permanently assure the people
that the money taken from  is 100% that the job is done.