White
House ex-counsel now off of Attorney General list
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[October 25, 2014]
By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former White House
counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, a leading candidate in President Barack
Obama's search for a new U.S. attorney general, has pulled out of
consideration for the nomination, a White House official said on Friday.
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Ruemmler, who informed Obama in a phone call on Wednesday, faced
the possibility of a difficult Senate confirmation battle over her
involvement in a host of White House issues that stirred controversy
in politically polarized Washington.
Obama, who thinks highly of Ruemmler, had approached the Washington
lawyer to see if he could put her on his shortlist for replacing
Holder, who has announced he will leave his post when a successor is
found.
"Kathy took this step this week on her own volition," the White
House official said.
Ruemmler declined to comment.
Some Republican lawmakers have raised questions about an internal
White House investigation led by Ruemmler into an April 2012 Secret
Service prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Oct/25/images/ads/current/napa_bch1-3108.png) During her tenure as the top White House lawyer, she was also
involved in a variety of other issues that became controversial,
such as a scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service and the
deaths of three Americans at a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi,
Libya.
"I believe that there was a perception that the confirmation
difficulties might have been insurmountable," said a former
administration official familiar with the situation.
U.S. Solicitor General Don Verrilli, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District Loretta Lynch and Labor Secretary Tom Perez are among the
other candidates on Obama's list for the job.
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Holder announced his decision to step down on Sept. 25. Obama will
not announce a nominee until after the Nov. 4 elections, a delay
sought by some Senate Democrats who wanted to avoid another
controversy ahead of the vote.
"Once the president has identified a candidate, we will build a
confirmation strategy around the nominee and that includes questions
of timing," the official said.
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough heaped praise on Ruemmler
in comments released by the White House, saying she remains a
trusted adviser to the president and is "as selfless as they come."
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Mohammad Zargham
and Andre Grenon)
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