Last week, I suggested that the role Mary Patrice Brown played in softening the conclusion of the OPR report on John Yoo deserved closer scrutiny. Less than a year ago, Eric Holder shifted the head of OPR into a different DOJ role. Almost immediately, OPR backed off its promise that the results of the OPR report would be public. And then, after Holder named Brown to head OPR, the report got stalled and, eventually, softened.
Now, less than a year after Brown took over the office, the Obama Administration reportedly plans to move her into a new position: a lifetime appointment as a DC District Court judge.
The White House and the Justice Department are vetting the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Mary Patrice Brown, for a federal judgeship, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Brown, a well-regarded career prosecutor, is expected to secure a nomination to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, assuming she clears her FBI background check and American Bar Association review, the people said.
Now, Main Justice reports that Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton recommended Brown.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton sent Brown’s name to the White House, along with eight others, for three vacancies on the court. (The names were generated by Norton’s nominating commission, the same group that interviewed candidates for U.S. Attorney in the District.) The White House appears to have pared the list down to three names, and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy has been assisting with the vetting since December, the people said.
Nevertheless, Brown’s career trajectory over the last year makes me all the more curious about precisely how the OPR report has been delayed and softened under her management.