The Justice Department trails all Cabinet agencies in percentage of occupied Senate-confirmed positions, according to data compiled by an independent group that tracks government personnel.

Two caveats, before we continue: The data, from the The White House Transition Project, disregard U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals in the field, and it counts term-limited positions, such as FBI Director, as vacancies, even if they haven’t expired.

So, of the 37 Washington-based positions subject to Senate approval, five are held by officials who were confirmed during the Bush administration and are still serving terms. They include members of the U.S. Parole Commission and the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, and the aforementioned Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller III.

That leaves us with 32 other DOJ posts, 10 of which have been filled. That’s a 31 percent confirmation rate — still the lowest, behind the Treasury Department (36 percent) and the Department of Health and Human Services (40 percent), according to the WHTP. The data are current as of Sept. 16 — day 240 of the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama has sent 15 DOJ nominations to the Senate (again, excluding U.S. Attorneys or U.S. Marshals). Let’s do some quick accounting.

Senate-confirmed:

• Attorney General Eric Holder (confirmed on Feb. 2)
• Deputy Attorney General David Ogden (confirmed on March 12)
• Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli (confirmed on March 12)
• Solicitor General Elena Kagan (confirmed on March 19)
• David Kris, Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division (confirmed on March 25)
• Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division (confirmed April 20)
• Christine Varney, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division (confirmed April 20)
• Tony West, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, (confirmed April 20)
• Ron Weich, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs (confirmed April 29)
• Cranston Mitchell, Commissioner, U.S. Parole Commission (confirmed Aug. 7)

Reported out of committee but awaiting a Senate vote:

• Dawn Johnsen for Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel (nominated Feb. 11)
• Thomas Perez for Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division (nominated March 31)
• Mary Smith for Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division (nominated April 20)
• Christopher Schroeder for Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy (nominated June 4)

Awaiting a committee vote:

• Ignacia Moreno for Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division (nominated June 8th)
• Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs (nominated Sept. 14)

Terry Sullivan, executive Director of the WHTP, said President George W. Bush had filled about 46 percent of the DOJ’s Senate-confirmed positions by this time in his first year, though the number is likely a bit high. (See caveat No. 2 above.)

At that time in the Bush administration, the department had the third-lowest confirmation rate. The Treasury Department and the Department of Transportation were faring worse.

Sullivan, who teaches political science at UNC Chapel Hill, said the difference between the two Justice Departments — in terms of staffing — is negligible.

“That’s pretty much the statisical range,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal fleshes out an earlier Atlanta Journal-Constitution report about the mysterious disappearance of acting U.S. Attorney Sally Yates’s name from the list of candidates for the Northern District of Georgia.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) called the White House earlier this year trying to block Yates’s appointment as the district’s top federal prosecutor, the Journal reported. Lewis withdrew his objections last month in a call to White House counsel Greg Craig after news media queries, the Journal reported, citing “two government officials with knowledge of the matter.”

Both the WSJ and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Yates had prosecuted more than a dozen public officials in Atlanta in pay-to-play schemes, including a Lewis friend and political ally, Bill Campbell, who served as Atlanta’s mayor from 1994 to 2002.

According to the Journal:

[T]he story of Ms. Yates, 49 years old, illustrates that even after three years of controversy over allegations of partisan meddling in the work of U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration, politics remains part of the selection process.

The Justice Department is still trying to repair damage from the scandal that erupted after Bush administration officials ousted nine U.S. attorney appointees in 2006 to make way for new political favorites.

The Atlanta newspaper reported Sept. 5 that Yates “apparently was on the short list, then off, then on again.�

Lewis’s chief of staff, Michael Collins, denied in an interview with the Journal that Lewis had tried to scuttle Yates’s nomination. Collins told the newspaper that Georgia’s House members collectively had decided to remove Yates’s name from a list of three favored candidates.

An advisory panel appointed by Georgia’s six Democratic House members forwarded three recommended finalists in April, including Yates; Atlanta lawyer Jeffrey Berhold, a former antitrust lawyer at the Justice Department; and Christopher Twyman, a partner at the Cox Byington law firm in northwest Georgia.

“We wanted to dispel any notion, based on your questions, that we were blocking Sally Yates’s nomination,” Collins told the WSJ.

President Obama on Thursday announced his nominees for Georgia’s other two prosecuting districts. They are Michael Moore (Middle District of Georgia), a former Georgia state senator and lawyer in Houston County, Ga.; and Ed Tarver (Southern District of Georgia), a Georgia state senator and partner at Augusta, Ga. law firm Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley.

Attorney General Eric Holder praised Minnesota’s new U.S. Attorney before more than 300 people at his investiture in Minneapolis, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

B. Todd Jones (Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi)

U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones previously served as Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor during the Clinton administration. He is the first Senate-confirmed Minnesota U.S. Attorney since Bush appointee Rachel Paulose was reassigned in November 2007 amid an ethics investigation and the resignations of top prosecutors who objected to her management style. Jones announced this week that he promoted two of those prosecutors who’d been Paulose critics.

“Todd will be an integral part of the Justice Department team we’ve assembled to keep the American people safe, restore the credibility of a department badly shaken by allegations of improper political interference, and reinvigorate our traditional law enforcement missions,” said Holder at the event, according to the news release.

He also attended the swearing in ceremony for Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance last month. Vance succeeded Alice Martin, who came under criticism by Democrats and liberals who charged her prosecuting decisions were partisan.

Holder added that Jones is also the new chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. The AGAC is an influential policy-making and advisory body that serves as the voice of the U.S. Attorneys in Washington.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who recommended Jones to President Obama, lauded the U.S. Attorney further. She said at the ceremony that he is part of a “long tradition of outstanding U.S. Attorneys.”

“Todd brings integrity and independence to a U.S. Attorney’s office already respected for its professionalism,” Klobuchar said at the event, according to the news release. “He understands the role of a prosecutor is to enforce the laws and ensure justice is done, without fear or favor. He’s done that before, and I know he’ll do it again.”

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney said he was honored to serve as U.S. Attorney again.

“The opportunity to serve our country again is one I will always cherish,” Jones said at the event, according to the news release. “The four simple words embedded somewhere on the wall of every federal courthouse in the land – equal justice under law – represent a bedrock principle upon which our great nation will continue to thrive. They are words intended to guide us every day as we represent the people of the United States as members of the Department of Justice.â€�

Jones officially took office in August, but he did not have a public swearing-in ceremony at the time.

Marc S. Murphy (Stites & Harbison)

Note to aspiring U.S. Attorney candidates: Don’t publish cartoons of your state’s senior senator wearing a cheerleader uniform.

Louisville lawyer Marc S. Murphy at Stites & Harbison found his name floated earlier this year for U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Kentucky. But Murphy also moonlights as an editorial cartoonist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, which runs three or four of his drawings weekly. His cartoons have skewered earmarks, the economy and politicians. But one important politician apparently doesn’t think Murphy is funny.

Since February 2008, Murphy has drawn several cartoons featuring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The Senate minority leader — not much known for a sense of humor — has been depicted as a pom pom-wielding cheerleader for President George W. Bush, as suffering unintended slights from Paris Hilton and in a barber’s chair seeking a Sarah Palin updo.

“I’ve been a very harsh critic of [McConnell's] positions. There’s no question about that,” Murphy said. However, “He’s a very important powerful person who has done  a lot of good things.”

But Murphy never anticipated how McConnell might react.

After President Obama’s election, Murphy said prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Western District of Kentucky encouraged him to seek the head prosecutor position. Sometime during the late winter or early spring, Murphy contacted Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) to express his interest in the job.

Murphy said he’d considered running in 2006 for the seat eventually captured by Yarmuth. But Yarmuth had talked him out of it. After President Obama’s election, Yarmuth considered recommending Murphy for the Louisville-based U.S. Attorney post, according to Murphy and another Kentucky lawyer with knowledge of the process.

While U.S. senators traditionally make recommendations to the president for their states’ U.S. Attorney posts, both senators from Kentucky — McConnell and Jim Bunning — are Republicans. As a result, the Democrats in the delegation,Yarmuth and Rep. Ben Chandler, were in charge of the recommendations.

However, when Yarmuth consulted McConnell earlier this year about his possible recommendations, he got a surprise, Murphy said. According to Murphy, who said he heard the story from Yarmuth, McConnell told the congressman: “You’re not going to recommend that guy who draws those cartoons of me, are you?”

Yarmuth laughed, according to Murphy. McConnell didn’t laugh back. Yarmuth asked McConnel if he was serious.  Apparently so.

Oops!

Murphy said he hasn’t spoken to Yarmuth since then. Yarmuth spokesman Trey Pollard said the congressman interviewed a number of candidates and selected the most qualified.

Murphy says he is disappointed but not discouraged. “I’m a very big supporter of President Obama,” adding he “would have been very proud to be part of the Obama administration.” He emphasized that he “didn’t feel cheated” because he “never thought [he] was a top candidate.”

But does Murphy regret drawing his McConnell cartoons?

“My night job got in the way of my public service,” he conceded. However, Murphy said there would have been an upside for McConnell if he’d gotten the job.

“If I became the U.S. Attorney I wouldn’t be able to do cartoons about him anymore.”

A former federal prosecutor and an ex-public defender have emerged as possible candidates to be the next Middle District of Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney, The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reported today.

Gerard Karam (Mazzoni & Karam)

Peter J. Smith, an ex-Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Gerard Karam, former chief public defender for Lackawanna County, Pa., are being considered for the post, “several legal sources” told the newspaper. A screening panel — created by Democratic Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter — started interviewing U.S. Attorney candidates for the Eastern, Middle and Western districts in July. Casey told The Times-Tribune in Scranton that he and Specter will make their recommendations to President Obama soon.

Smith appears to be the leading candidate for the post, according to The Times-Tribune. He has close ties to Casey, having worked for Casey when he was Pennsylvania’s treasurer and auditor general. Smith was also inspector general for Casey’s father, Bob Casey Sr., when he was Pennsylvania governor.

Karam is also a strong contender for the position, according to The Times Leader. He is a partner at Scranton law firm Mazzoni & Karam.

Dennis Pfannenschmidt (DOJ)

We previously reported that Middle District interim U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt was not looking for a permanent appointment. He replaced Martin C. Carlson, a Bush administration appointee who stepped down last month to become a U.S. magistrate judge in Harrisburg, Pa.

Laurie O. Robinson (DOJ)

Laurie O. Robinson (Brown University) is nominated to be Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs. If confirmed, Robinson — who is not a lawyer — would replace Bush administration OJP head Jeffrey Sedgwick, who resigned in January.

Her vitals:

• Born in Washington, D.C., in 1946.
• Has been Deputy Assistant Attorney General for OJP since Sept. 14.
• Was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP from January until earlier this month.
• Worked as a distinguished senior scholar/director of the criminology department in the master’s program at the University of Pennsylvania from 2001 until January.
• Was a consultant to Pew Charitable Trusts from May 2008 to August 2008.
• Served as a consultant to Abt Associates in Cambridge, Mass., from February 2004 to August 2004.
• Worked as a consultant to the Council of State Governments in Lexington, Ky., from August 2003 to June 2004.
• Was a consultant to Justice Management Institute in Denver, Colo., from January 2003 to July 2005.
• Worked as the president of CSR Incorporated in Arlington, Va., from January 2003 to August 2003.
• Served as the Assistant Attorney General for OJP from September 1994 to February 2000.
• Was the Associate Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General from August 1993 to September 1994.
• Worked as the director of the criminal justice section at the American Bar Association from September 1979 to August 1993. Also headed the association’s professional services division.
• Served as the assistant staff director at the criminal justice section at the American Bar Association from July 1972 to August 1979.
• Was a temporary administrative assistant at Potomac Temporaries in Alexandria, Va., from April 1972 to July 1972.
• Worked as a desk editor and reporter at the Community News Service in New York, N.Y., from September 1968 to July 1971.
• Received the Edmond J. Randolph Award at the Justice Department for Outstanding Service.

Click here for her full questionnaire.

A mother and daughter received probation yesterday for their roles in the theft and illegal trafficking of Indian artifacts in Utah, The Associated Press reported today.

Government lawyers sought a prison sentence of at least 18 months for Jeanne Redd on multiple counts stemming from the Utah Indian artifacts raid in June, according to The AP. She received three years of probation and a $2,000 fine on seven felony counts. Her daughter, Jerrica Redd, got two years of probation on three related counts. The mother and daughter pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

More than 150 federal agents were involved in the raid that nabbed more than two dozen people for alleged violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Utah U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman had to issue a statement and hold a news conference to defend the federal actions, which drew scorn from Utah officials, including Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett.

Hatch said the raid was “unnecessary and brutal.� Physician James Redd, Jeanne Redd’s husband, committed suicide a day after he was charged in the raid, followed by the suicide of another suspect a week later.

Brett Tolman (DOJ)

Tolman told The AP that a prison sentence for Jeanne Redd would have been the correct decision “given the serious nature of the conduct involved in this case.”

“The judge, however, reached a different decision and we recognize that sentencing is within the court’s discretion,” Tolman told the news wire. “The public needs to understand that looting artifacts, many considered sacred by Native Americans, from public and tribal lands is simply not going to be tolerated.”

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said, according to The AP, that artifact collecting isn’t justified simply because it is a “culturally accepted” hobby in the Southwest. But he did not follow federal judiciary sentencing guidelines, saying Jeanne Redd was repentant, quickly surrendered and is an important community member who is still coping with her husband’s suicide, the news wire reported.

“I am satisfied this conduct will not be repeated,” he said, according to The AP.

The judge said he was aware Jeanne Redd had a past encounter with the law over Indian artifacts, according to The AP. Jeanne and James Redd paid the state of Utah $10,000 in 2003 after they were prosecuted for looting an Indian burial ground. The charges against James Redd for the 1996 incident were eventually dropped, while his wife pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.

Jerrica Redd was not charged during the June 10 raid. Authorities later found evidence in the Redds’ home that allegedly connected her to the artifact thefts, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Jeanne and Jerrica Redd were the first people from the raid to be sentenced.

David Hale (Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice PLLC)

The field appears to be narrowing for candidates for U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

David Hale of Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice PLLC and Patrick Bouldin, an attorney in the Office of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Kentucky, are considered to be finalists, according to attorneys familiar with the recommendation process.

Hale (Vanderbilt University, University of Kentucky College of Law) has worked at Reed Weitkamp since 1999.  Before joining RWSV, Hale was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Kentucky. Bouldin attended the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville School of Law.

The people familiar with the process said several others were also under consideration for the post at one time. They include:

• Benham Sims, a former judge in Jefferson, Ky., District Court
• Fred Cowan, a former state attorney general, a former member of the state House and currently a circuit court judge
• Tom McDonald, a retired judge from the Jefferson Circuit Court
• Marc S. Murphy, an attorney in Louisville

While U.S. senators traditionally make recommendations to the president for their states’ U.S. Attorney posts, both senators from Kentucky — Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning — are Republicans. As a result, the two lone Democrats in the delegation, Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth, are left to do the nominating. Spokespeople for Chandler and Yarmuth did not return phone calls seeking comment.

“I don’t know that they agree between themselves who should do the recommending,” Scott C. Cox, a Republican lawyer in Kentucky who served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney  from 1987 to 1994, said in an interview.

President Obama tapped a former state senator, a state lawmaker and a federal prosecutor for U.S. Attorney posts in Georgia and Massachusetts today.

They are:

-Michael Moore (Middle District of Georgia): The former Georgia state senator and lawyer in Houston County, Ga., would replace Frank Maxwell Wood, who resigned in July. Read our previous report on Moore here.

Ed Tarver (Tarverforgeorgiasenate.com)

-Ed Tarver (Southern District of Georgia): The Georgia state senator and partner at Augusta, Ga. law firm Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley would succeed Edmund A. Booth Jr., who resigned earlier this month. Read more about Tarver here.

Carmen Ortiz (Adelphi Univ.)

-Carmen M. Ortiz (Massachusetts): The Massachusetts Assistant U.S. Attorney would replace Michael J. Sullivan, who stepped down in April to join a law firm headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Read our previous report on the nominee here.

Obama has now made 21 U.S. Attorney nominations. The Senate has confirmed 11 U.S. Attorneys. The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to consider the 10 remaining nominees.

David Ayres, chief of staff to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, can invoke his Fifth amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying in the trial of Kevin Ring, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

David Ayres (Ashcroft Group)

Ayres, who is now CEO of Ashcroft’s consulting firm, appeared in federal court in Washington with his wife, Laura Ayres, to take the Fifth in the presence of U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.

David Ayres was on the stand for about five minutes, during which he declined to answer several questions related to a $16.3 million grant the Justice Department awarded to one of Ring’s tribal clients in 2002 and college basketball tickets he received from the lobbyist. Laura Ayres’s appearance was even briefer. She was asked one question about Wizards tickets Ring gave her in 2003.

Ring, a former associate of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sought to put them on the stand to disprove the government’s allegations that Ring intended to cultivate Ayres with the tickets in return for future favors. Ring is charged with 10 felony counts for allegedly plying public officials with meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts in exchange for helping his clients.

Ayres is not accused of any wrongdoing, nor is his wife. But the government alleges that in January 2002 Ayres helped Ring secure $16.3 million for one of the lobbyist’s tribal clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, overruling then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tracy Henke, who thought the figure too high. The grant was for a new jail.

In March 2002, Ring gave Ayres tickets to the NCAA college basketball tournament at the MCI Center. The Justice Department later waived the competitive bidding requirement on the grant, allowing the Choctaw to pick its contractor of choice. Ring also supplied Laura Ayres with basketball tickets in January 2003. She approached Ring, saying they were a birthday gift for her husband, the government says.

The government has refused to grant the Ayreses immunity; Ring’s lawyer, Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise, argued Huvelle could compel it. But Huvelle said Thursday she doubted she had such power.

“I’m not comfortable saying they don’t have a right to invoke the Fifth Amendment,” she said.

The ruling leaves unanswered the question of who made grant decision, though emails between Ring and his colleagues strongly suggest Ayres had some involvement. Wise said Ayres would have testified that he never pressured Henke, that Ayres and Ring discussed the jail but there was no quid pro quo, and that the two were friends.

Laura Ayres, Wise said, would have testified that Ring made her promise not to reveal the source of tickets because he “didn’t want Ayres to feel uncomfortable” about them coming from a lobbyist.

Huvelle said Wise could call Henke to testify about the Choctaw decision. Henke, who also works for Ashcroft, said in her grand jury testimony that she made the decision. But after a phone call to Ayres in January 2002, Henke emailed her staff, saying her last attempt to keep the grant amount to $9 million had failed.

Ring, now four days into his trial, did not leave the hearing empty-handed. Huvelle struck government exhibits referring to the birthday tickets and said she would instruct the jury not to speculate about the nature of two discussions between Ring and Ayres.