Michael McCrum (Thompson & Knight LLP)
The nomination of Michael McCrum, a San Antonio-based lawyer at Thompson & Knight LLP, to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas is “forthcoming,” a Senate staffer told The Texas Tribune.
Republican Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison in November 2009 recommended McCrum and Robert Pitman, a Western District of Texas U.S. magistrate judge who is gay, for the job. Main Justice reported that McCrum has the inside track on the job in part because he was recommended by both the Republican senators and Texas’s House Democrats, making him a consensus choice.
Nominations in Texas have been delayed because of disagreements between the state’s two Republican senators and the House Democrats recommending candidates to the White House. So far, President Barack Obama has nominated only one U.S. Attorney to take one of the four open positions in Texas — John Stevens for the Eastern District of Texas. Earlier this month Stevens withdrew his name from consideration citing the best interests of his family.
Names have been forward to the White House for the other districts.
Cornyn and Hutchison recommended Sarah Saldana, an Assistant U.S. Attorney who heads the fraud and public corruption division in Dallas, for the Northern District and Kenneth Magidson, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston and head of the organized crime drug enforcement task force for the Southwest region, for the Southern District.
See our previous coverage of the Texas U.S. Attorney nomination process here, here and here.
[...] senators and Texas’s House Democrats, making him a consensus choice. In April, a Senate staffer told a Texas newspaper that McCrum would be nominated soon. But with no nomination on the horizon, [...]