Letter To President Barack Obama
Letter
Dodd, Lieberman Send U.S. Attorney Recommendations For Connecticut To President Obama
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) sent a letter to President Barack Obama outlining their recommendations for the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
This spring, Dodd and Lieberman created an Advisory Panel
to assist in the process of making recommendations for candidates for U.S. Attorney, U.S. Marshal and other federal positions as appropriate for Connecticut. The Advisory Panel is composed of seven prominent, highly respected citizens of Connecticut and the state's legal community, ranging from a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court to attorneys and business and community leaders. Together with the Advisory Panel, Dodd and Lieberman solicited, screened and interviewed a number of highly qualified, accomplished individuals from Connecticut's legal community. Their letter to the President recommends four candidates for the U.S. Attorney post.
The U.S. Attorney for Connecticut upholds the law and ensures justice not only for the people of our state, but for the entire country, said Dodd and Lieberman. Each of these four outstanding lawyers would make an excellent U.S. Attorney for the State of Connecticut and each would be a credit to this critical federal position.
The candidates recommended by Dodd and Lieberman, in alphabetical order, are:
* Nora Dannehy, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. Ms. Dannehy has worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in Connecticut since 1991. In addition to her role in Connecticut, she is currently in charge of investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the firing of U.S. Attorneys during the previous Administration.
* David Fein, Partner, Wiggin and Dana LLP. Mr. Fein served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton and as a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. In addition, he is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School.
* Edgardo Ramos, Partner, Day Pitney LLP. Prior to joining Day Pitney, Mr. Ramos served as a supervisory federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
* William Tong, Associate, Finn Dixon & Herling LLP. Mr. Tong is also a State Representative in Connecticut, representing Stamford and New Canaan. There he sits on, and is a leader of, the Judiciary Committee.
The full text of the letter to the President is below.
September 10, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
We write to you today to submit our recommendations for the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. The four individuals we are submitting for your consideration are outstanding lawyers and each would be an excellent choice to serve as the next U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.
To help us make our recommendations we established an Advisory Panel of seven prominent and respected citizens of Connecticut. These individuals represented a wide cross-section of Connecticut and the legal community. They included a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, a former U.S. Attorney, several partners at major Connecticut and national law firms, business leaders, and community leaders throughout our state. Their insights and hard work during this process were invaluable to us.
In addition to the outstanding Advisory Panel, we were fortunate to have extremely qualified and skilled lawyers throughout our state apply to be the next U.S. Attorney. The Advisory Panel asked each of the candidates to fill out detailed questionnaires about their qualifications, experiences, and priorities for the U.S. Attorney's office. Then the panel conducted extensive interviews with all of the candidates that had applied for the U.S. Attorney position. Finally, the Advisory Panel met with us at length to discuss the candidates and review their strengths. After completion of that process, we interviewed several of the candidates ourselves. The four candidates we recommend, in alphabetical order, are:
* Nora Dannehy, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. Ms. Dannehy has worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in Connecticut since 1991. In addition to her role in Connecticut, she is currently in charge of investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the firing of U.S. Attorneys during the previous Administration.
* David Fein, Partner, Wiggin and Dana LLP. Mr. Fein served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton and as a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. In addition, he is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School.
* Edgardo Ramos, Partner, Day Pitney LLP. Prior to joining Day Pitney, Mr. Ramos served as a supervisory federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
* William Tong, Associate, Finn Dixon & Herling LLP. Mr. Tong is also a State Representative in Connecticut, representing Stamford and New Canaan. There he sits on, and is a leader of, the Judiciary Committee.
All four of these individuals, we believe, are extremely well qualified to be the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. We strongly recommend them all to you for your consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance to you on this matter.
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Dodd
U.S. Senator
Joseph I. Lieberman
U.S. Senator
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