Bryan Cave Partner Picked for Deputy AG
Bryan Cave partner James Cole is President Obama’s nominee for deputy attorney general, the No. 2 job in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Cole has previous Justice Department experience, according to the Washington Post and The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. He was deputy chief of the department’s public integrity section before he left in 1992, and during that time he worked with Holder, the Post says.
The friendship between Holder and Cole is expected to be key in avoiding the problems that may have contributed to the departure of the former deputy attorney general, David Ogden, who was said to have clashed with Holder, the Post says. Ogden left after less than a year in the job.
At Bryan Cave, Cole focused on white-collar defense and corporate investigations. Republicans have said they plan to take a closer look at his involvement in one case—his appointment as an independent monitor to oversee American International Group’s compliance with a securities fraud settlement.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted in a statement that AIG later received a $182.3 billion government bailout. “How he performed at that job is directly relevant to his qualifications and will need to be closely examined,” Sessions said.
