WASHINGTON — Former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler has told President Barack Obama she doesn’t want to be nominated for attorney general, after he asked her to consider succeeding Eric Holder, people familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press on Friday.
Ruemmler was concerned that her experience as a close adviser to the president would have led to a difficult confirmation process in the current highly charged partisan environment, the sources said, speaking on a condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private discussions. They say Ruemmler, a top official at the Justice Department before moving to the White House, was also concerned that could ignite political attacks against Obama.
Ruemmler’s withdrawal, in a phone call to the president Wednesday, leaves no obvious front-runner to replace Holder, who announced a month ago that he would step down once a replacement was confirmed. Ruemmler brought the law enforcement bonafides of a former prosecutor in the Bush administration who won convictions against Enron’s executives and the national security expertise of a top White House official.
Other candidates that administration officials have said have been considered include Solicitor General Don Verrilli; Labor Secretary Tom Perez; Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York; Jenny Durkan, who resigned as U.S. attorney in Washington state last month; former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Tony West, who recently resigned as the No. 3 official at the Justice Department and has taken a job at Pepsico; and Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.