Carmen Ortiz (DOJ)

Terrorism and national security are the priorities of Carmen Ortiz, the new Massachusetts U.S. Attorney said in a recent interview with The Patriot Ledger.

In addition, Ortiz, who took office last Nov. 9 (her formal swearing-in ceremony was Jan. 11), said her office will “continue to build on what we’ve done in the past.” The office also will make financial fraud, political corruption and gun and gang violence priorities, Ortiz told the newspaper.

Since Ortiz took office, she has made some staff changes and has shifted some of the office’s priorities. Even though she’s taking charge and making the office her own, she says she is still overwhelmed by the “tremendous amount of pride and accomplishment” that comes along with being the state’s first Hispanic and female U.S. Attorney.

“I think it’s really important for the leaders in government or private industry to truly represent the different nationalities and groups that form a community and a state. I felt very humbled to be selected. It meant a lot to my family.”

Ortiz found out about her nomination from the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Learning of her impending nomination was “very exciting,” Ortiz told The Patriot Ledger, adding that it was “very touching” to hear the news from Kennedy. “That meant a lot to me.”

A sense of pride has long been important to Ortiz who “knew all along [she] wanted to be a lawyer.”

“I never thought about doing anything else. Maybe it was watching trials on TV, and thinking it was exciting to be in front of a jury arguing a case. That fascinated me. (At George Washington University Law School) I realized it wasn’t just presenting the case. It was – and this is why I wanted to primarily be a prosecutor – that sense of being able to do justice, of being able to work with victims and then help make people whole, people who had suffered a great tragedy. But also, being a prosecutor was a way of ensuring that the law was abided by, not just by citizens you would investigate and prosecute, but (also) by law enforcement that you would work with as well.”

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts used the investiture ceremony of Boston-based U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz on Monday to press prosecutors about their priorities, The National Law Journal reported today.

Mark Wolf (Gov)

With Attorney General Eric Holder in attendance, Chief Judge Mark Wolf asked Ortiz whether her staff is “being put to their highest and best use when two-thirds of the defendants in this federal district court are indigent and must have Criminal Justice Act counsel,” according to the NLJ.

Wolf has been vocal about what he sees prosecutorial misconduct in the district, and the gun and drug cases that Bush U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan tried in district court, The NLJ said.

“I hope as you develop the priorities for the performance of your office you will consider questions like” those, Wolf said at the ceremony, according to The NLJ.

Ortiz, the state’s first Hispanic and female U.S. Attorney, downplayed the judge’s remarks in a statement to the NLJ. Though the U.S. Attorney said at the ceremony that fighting terrorism is her “first priority,” she also said her office will focus its attention on crimes ranging from human trafficking to environmental crimes, The NLJ said.

Carmen Ortiz (DOJ)

“I believe our Assistant United States Attorneys will be put to their highest and best use regardless of who represents the defendants,” Ortiz said in the statement. “We will bring cases based on where the evidence takes us, not based on who is paying the bill.”

We reported in May that Wolf rebuked Massachusetts Assistant US Attorney Suzanne Sullivan for withholding evidence that could have helped a defendant in a gun case.

Wolf also wrote a letter to Holder in April expressing his “renewed hopeâ€� that the Attorney General would address judges’ concerns about prosecutors’ conduct. Then-Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey did not respond to similar letters from Wolf.

Wolf added in the letter that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the mishandling of the Sen. Ted Stevens public corruption case “confirms that other judges share my concern.�

Attorney General Eric Holder dropped by Boston yesterday to see an old friend sworn in as U.S. Attorney.

Carmen Ortiz (DOJ)

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz first met Holder three decades ago when she was a student at George Washington University Law School interning at the Justice Department Public Integrity Section, the Boston Globe reported. Holder was then a trial lawyer in the section.

“Have we come a long way, huh?” Ortiz, the state’s first Hispanic and female U.S. Attorney said to Holder, the country’s first black Attorney General, according to the newspaper.

Holder praised Ortiz as a natural leader and well-rounded lawyer, The Globe said.

“Latinas have done pretty well over the last few months, and deservedly so,” the Attorney General said in an apparent reference to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, according to the newspaper.

Ortiz told hundreds of supporters and dignitaries packed into a John Joseph Moakley Courthouse courtroom that fighting terrorism is her “first priority,” according to The Globe. She also let the crowd know that she became engaged New Year’s Day to Thomas Dolan, who works at IBM, The Globe said.

Ortiz was officially sworn in on Nov. 9, a few days after the Senate confirmed her to succeed Michael Sullivan, who was the Bush administration’s top federal prosecutor in Boston. U.S. Attorneys often have a later ceremonial investiture with local, state and federal leaders in attendance. Ortiz’s swearing was the seventh such ceremony attended by Holder since he became Attorney General.

Carmen Ortiz (Adelphi University)

The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney filled several top posts in her office, the Boston Business Journal reported last night.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who was sworn in last November, named leaders to the Boston-based office’s criminal division and major crimes unit, according to the Journal. She also named an Assistant U.S. Attorney to the recently created counsel to the U.S. Attorney post, the publication said.

According to the Journal, the new leaders are:

• James F. Lang, who will lead the office’s criminal division. He previously served as the acting deputy chief of the criminal division. Lang has been with the office since 1993.

• John T. McNeil, who will be the deputy chief of the criminal division. He previously was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office’s public corruption and special prosecutions unit. McNeil joined the office in 1999.

• Nadine Pellegrini, who will lead the major crimes unit. She previously served as the acting head of the unit. Pellegrini has been with the office since 1991.

• James B. Farmer, who will be the counsel to the U.S. Attorney. He will also continue to lead the office’s anti-terrorism and national security unit. Farmer joined the office in 1985.

Carmen Ortiz (Adelphi University)

Attorney General Eric Holder will attend a ceremonial swearing-in Monday for Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, a spokesperson for Ortiz’s office told Main Justice.

Ortiz was officially sworn in on Nov. 9, a few days after the Senate confirmed her. But U.S. Attorneys often have a later ceremonial investiture with local, state and federal leaders in attendance.

The Attorney General has attended six U.S. Attorney investitures so far. He was at the swearing-in ceremonies for Paul Fishman in New Jersey, Timothy Heaphy in the Western District of Virginia, Neil MacBride in the Eastern District of Virginia, Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York, B. Todd Jones in Minnesota and  Joyce Vance in the Northern District of Alabama.

Read our previous article here about the warm glow U.S. Attorneys get when the Attorney General shows up at their swearing-in ceremonies.