President Bush said that he will nominate Connecticut U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor as associate attorney general at the Department of Justice.
Spokesman Tom Carson said O’Connor plans to resign as Connecticut’s top federal prosecutor if he is confirmed by the Senate.
O’Connor has been serving as U.S. Attorney since 2002 and, more recently, as chief of staff to the attorney general.
In his new job, O’Connor would be third in line at the Department of Justice and would oversee hundreds of attorneys working on civil rights, tax, antitrust and environmental cases.
“I am deeply honored to be nominated by the president to serve as associate attorney general, and grateful to the president and the attorney general for the confidence they have placed in me,” O’Connor said in a statement. “The past five years during which I have served as Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney have been the most challenging and rewarding of my professional career.
O’Connor’s was one of five nominations announced the White House announced Thursday to begin filling more than a dozen vacant leadership posts across the department as newly sworn-in Attorney General Michael Mukasey begins his job.
“Kevin O’Connor has distinguished himself as U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut since 2002, and has also provided exceptional service and leadership as the department’s chief of staff for the past seven months,” Mukasey said in a statement. “His superb record of accomplishment both in public service and in private civil practice makes him an excellent candidate to fulfill the duties of the office of associate attorney general.”
With only a little over a year left in the Bush administration, officials may opt to have an interim U.S. attorney for Connecticut as they have done in the past.
During O’Connor’s tenure in Connecticut, prosecutors successfully convicted a wave of public officials, including former Gov. John G. Rowland, a state lawmaker and the mayors of two of the largest cities. They also have won numerous convictions in a probe of the mob’s influence of the trash industry and won record environmental fines against companies.
“I think Kevin is a terrific U.S. attorney,” said Hugh Keefe, a defense attorney who has represented many high-profile defendants in federal cases. “He’s had a good run.”
O’Connor, who ran a competitive but unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1998, has been mentioned as a potential Republican candidate in the future.
“He’s the golden boy of the Connecticut Republican Party without question,” Keefe said.
