WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris’ team is quietly reviewing potential candidates for attorney general, looking at who could serve as America’s top federal law enforcement officer if she wins against Donald Trump. a federal criminal defendant While trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat by throwing the Justice Department into chaos during his presidency.
Harris, He is also a former prosecutorknown to have a good relationship with supervising Attorney General Merrick Garland An extensive investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and appointed special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the two Criminal case against Trump.
But Garland has struggled to lead the Justice Department for more than three-and-a-half years and is slowly moving up the list of longest-serving attorneys general in American history. And Harris said his potential presidency would not be a continuation of the Joe Biden administration.
There are many variables up in the air, including at a critical moment for the department, when many career employees are wondering what the DOJ’s future will look like if Trump wins, whether a theoretical Garland departure timeline or As in 2020, he falsely announces his victory. Garland, who oversees the Justice Department after the biggest crisis since Watergate, when Trump tried to bring in Justice Department appointees to reverse his election loss, will stay on at least long enough to ensure a smooth transition.
Another key factor is the party composition of the Senate, which would have to confirm any potential Harris nominee if he were to take the White House.
Still, several names have emerged for the position of the 87th attorney general of the United States.
Four sources familiar with Harris campaign discussions told NBC News that there are three main names being considered: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who is on Harris’ running mate list; former Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who served as the No. 3 official at the Department of Justice until earlier this year; and Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Another name in the mix is Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., two sources said, although she is less than two years into her six-year term in 2022, which would make things difficult given her Senate hold. A close split is expected in the next session. If Cortez Masto were to leave the Senate and become attorney general, then he would become the Republican governor of Nevada. to choose state senator through the next general election.
Three officials on Harris’ team said potential names for the attorney general position had been announced, but discussions were still preliminary as Harris focused on campaigning and winning the election for the next 12 days. instead, it’s fictional,” transition team spokesman Harris told NBC News. “Instead, we’re focusing on building the infrastructure we need to be ready.”
Cooper, a longtime North Carolina attorney general, is completing his second term as the state’s governor and is limited in his ability to seek re-election this year. Cooper withdrew Harris was considered a vice presidential candidate in the summer, but the timing was wrong, he said. (Democrats were concerned about a state law that would allow North Carolina’s far-right lieutenant governor to take over in Cooper’s absence while he campaigns across the country.) The governor gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention this summer in which he spoke about Harris’ leadership.
Gupta, who won the Senate’s 51-49 confirmation as assistant attorney general in 2021, is a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during former President Barack Obama’s second term.
Despite the close approval vote, Gupta has strong connections across the aisle won praise of many conservatives and law enforcement officials, including the Association of Major Cities Chiefs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and even the National Fraternal Order of Police, which has endorsed Trump three times, because of what the FOP chief described as his “open and honest” work. Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, previously said Gupta is “highly qualified, effective, principled and driven by a desire to seek common purpose and consensus.”
Williams has served since 2021 as the first black U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — an office jokingly called the “Sovereign District of New York” because of its size and independence from Justice Department headquarters. The work is a unanimous vote in the Senate.
Williams oversaw numerous high-profile prosecutions, including conviction Senator Bob Menendez, D.N.J., on corruption charges, continued pursuit Allegations against prominent figures such as Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams and Sean “Diddy“Combs, the cryptocurrency scammer Sam Bankman-Fried and sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein Ghislaine Maxwell.
Harris’ campaign includes numerous Justice Department veterans, including his brother-in-law Tony West, who, like Gupta, is the No. 3 Justice Department official. In the final days of his campaign, Harris navigates difficult waters with the DOJ: He has to make a case against Trump to the American people, while at the same time make any comments that Trump’s defense team could use the special counsel appointed by the DOJ in a future lawsuit that could further delay or complicate the election interference case against him; it’s Trump’s job He managed to withdraw from the 2024 elections.
Harris is scheduled for Tuesday Be his “connecting argument” to voters across the country with a speech on the EllipseOn January 6, 2021, Trump lied to his supporters about the 2020 election, urging them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
Trump routinely downplays the violent attack on the US Capitol and in his first days in office he praises criminals who have done so by promising to pardon countless of them. Smith’s office said recently Trump is responsible for the January 6 attackHe said the Republican nominee “intentionally caused his supporters to obstruct” the confirmation of Biden’s victory.
On January 6, many of the defendants told the courts that they “deceived” I am sorry for and because of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election convincing enough in the first place, to get addicted to them, Trump has not backed down from the election fraud his lawyers claim. is kept based on good faith and “then it is not unreasonable.”
The Harris campaign is preparing for the possibility of Trump once again claims victory regardless of reality or even what some of his allies expect of him. Trump sets the scene directing its anger at the majority of non-white cities in swing states, including Detroit and Philadelphia..