Legal Commentary

Obama Nominates U.S. Attorney for Colorado

By Jeralyn

As expected by many lawyers, including me, President Obama has nominated Stephanie Villafuerte, a former AUSA, former Denver Chief Deputy D.A. and current Deputy Chief of Staff to Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, to be the U.S. Attorney for Colorado.

I expect her to be confirmed easily and a popular choice. (Her focus as a state prosecutor was on domestic violence and child abuse.) Some background details are here. The other two lawyers up for consideration were:

John Walsh, a white-collar criminal and civil attorney from Hill & Robbins in Denver who previously worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California; and William “Bill” Thiebaut Jr., a district attorney for Pueblo, Colo. who previously served as the Colorado Senate majority leader.

Once again it shows how the U.S. Attorneys' job is a political plum. Villafuerte took a leave of absence from the DA's office to work on Ritter's gubernatorial campaign. She permanently left the DA's office to become his Deputy Chief of Staff. Ritter has been one of Obama's strongest supporters. And so it goes. At least she's up to the task. [More...]

I had a case with Stephanie when she was still in the DA's office that went on for a few years. While she was much tougher than I thought the case called for, she was ethical and (unfortunately for my client)true to her word. She never budged from her position. I also think Ritter was a very principled D.A. and supported him for re-election to that office and later as Governor. So, bottom line, my job will probably get tougher with Stephanie as U.S. Attorney, but she's qualified, principled and deserving of the job.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 30, 2009 (boomark / email).