John Walsh (Hill & Robbins PC)

John F. Walsh (Williams College, Stanford Law School) is nominated to be U.S. Attorney for Colorado. He would replace Troy Eid, who became a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig in Denver in January 2009, as the Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for the district. The district’s current interim U.S. Attorney is David M. Gaouette.

Walsh’s vitals:

• Born in New York, N.Y., in 1961.
• Attended but did not earn a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
• Has been a partner at Hill & Robbins PC in Denver since October 1999.
• Worked at Holland & Hart LLP in Denver from 1995 to 1999. Served as partner and of counsel.
• Was a legal commentator for CBS News from 1996 to 1999.
• Worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California from 1987 to 1995.
• Clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1987.
• Has tried approximately 25 cases, serving as chief counsel on all of these cases with the exception of one case, in which he served as second chair.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

UPDATE: On his Office of Government Ethics questionnaire Walsh reported receiving a membership draw from Hill & Robbins PC of $103,751.

On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Walsh reported assets valued at $2.4 million, mostly from two real estate properties, and $696,000 in liabilities, mostly from mortgages on the properties, for a net worth of $1.7 million.

The White House announced seven new U.S. Attorney nominations Wednesday night.

They are:

Don Cazayoux (Gov)

– Don Cazayoux (Middle District of Louisiana): The former U.S. House member would replace Bush holdover David R. Dugas, who has served as U.S. Attorney since 2001. Read more about him here.

Pamela C. Marsh (Akerman Senterfitt)

– Pamela C. Marsh (Northern District of Florida): An of counsel for Akerman Senterfit and former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Marsh would succeed George Miller, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in 2008. Read more about her here.

Zane D. Memeger (Morgan Lewis)

– Zane D. Memeger (Eastern District of Pennsylvania): The partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and former Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed Pat Meehan, who resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2008. Read more about Memeger here.

– Peter J. Smith (Middle District of Pennsylvania): The former deputy state treasurer for the Pennsylvania Treasury Department and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania would succeed Martin C. Carlson, who resigned as U.S. Attorney last year. Read more about Smith here.

– Edward L. Stanton III (Western District of Tennessee): The senior counsel for Federal Express would succeed David Kustoff, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in 2008. Read more about Stanton here.

John Walsh (Hill & Robbins)

– John F. Walsh (Colorado): The partner at Hill & Robbins PC would succeed Troy Eid, who resigned as U.S. Attorney last year. Read more about Walsh here.

Stephanie Villafuerte, the deputy chief of staff to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) for community outreach, was Obama’s first nominee for the Colorado post, but she withdrew her nomination after coming under fire for reportedly asking employees of the Denver district attorney’s office to access a restricted government database in connection with the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

Stephen Wigginton (Weilmuenster & Wigginton)

– Stephen R. Wigginton (Southern District of Illinois): The Assistant State’s Attorney in Madison County, Ill., and partner at Weilmuenster & Wigginton PC would replace Bush holdover U.S. Attorney A. Courtney Cox. Read more about Wigginton here.

Obama has now made 67 U.S. Attorney nominations, 36 of whom have already won Senate confirmation.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder called on panel members to move “more expeditiously” on U.S. Attorney nominees. He said the number of would-be U.S. Attorneys stalled in the Senate is “unusual.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee’s ranking Republican, responded Wednesday that the panel shouldn’t be faulted for failing to get more U.S. Attorneys through the Senate. He said there is a “lack of nominations” coming out of the White House.

A Denver lawyer is now the leading candidate to be nominated as U.S. Attorney for Colorado, The Pueblo Chieftain reported Saturday.

John Walsh (Hill & Robbins)

John Walsh, a shareholder at Hill & Robbins PC, has emerged as the frontrunner for the nomination, bypassing Bill Thiebaut, the Pueblo, Colo., district attorney, who was thought to be the leading candidate.

President Barack Obama nominated Stephanie Villafuerte for the post in September, but she withdrew her name from consideration in December after a deluge of Republican queries about her integrity. Walsh was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney, serving as chief of the major frauds unit in the Central District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office. Read more about him here.

Walsh is undergoing an FBI background check and should be tapped soon, according to the newspaper.

Villafuerte, a longtime aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), withdrew last year amid controversy over whether she accessed a law enforcement database in connection with Ritter’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign. She denied the allegations, which were raised by congressional and state Republicans.

Walsh is backed by key Republicans in the state, including Troy Eid, who served as U.S. Attorney during the Bush administration.

John Walsh (Hill & Robbins, P.C.)

The Republican former U.S. Attorney in Colorado is pushing Denver lawyer John Walsh for the state’s top federal prosecuting job, The Denver Post reports.

Troy Eid, who served as U.S. Attorney during the Bush administration, wrote Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that Walsh is “ethical and a person of unimpeachable character and integrity.”

Walsh, a white-collar criminal and civil attorney with the Hill & Robbins law firm, has re-emerged as a candidate for U.S. Attorney after President Barack Obama’s original nominee, Stephanie Villafuerte, withdrew on Monday, citing “political attacks” by Republicans.

Walsh and Villafuerte were recommended to the White House earlier this year by Udall and then-Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), who is now Interior secretary. Their other recommendation was Bill Thiebaut, a district attorney for Pueblo, Colo.

Stephanie Villafuerte (handout via Denver Post)

In his letter to the senator, Eid said: “I know from my own experience that United States Attorneys are entrusted with tremendous power over life and property,” adding, “Colorado’s chief law enforcement leader must act in an ethical and nonpartisan way that’s beyond reproach. Our civil rights and community safety are at stake.”

Walsh also had worked previously for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Former state Sen. Norma Anderson (R) also reached out to Udall on Walsh’s behalf. Anderson told The Post she has known Walsh for a number of years and believes he is “unbiased (and) open- minded and works well with both parties.” She added, “We’re not going to get a Republican appointed, so why not take the best of the Democrats?”

In a Wednesday email to The Post, Walsh wrote, “I was deeply honored to be on the list sent by Sen. Udall and then-Sen. Salazar to the President in January to be considered for nomination as U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado,” adding,  “I am deeply honored to be considered now.”

Bill Thiebaut (gov)

Thiebaut, also in a Wednesday email to The Post, wrote that “everyone has a reason to support or to not support their favorite candidate.” He added, “I am sure that the President will make the right decision in selecting a new nominee after vetting potential candidates.”

Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo told The Post she does not expect that anyone other than Walsh and Thiebaut will be recommended to Obama.

Villafuerte, a longtime aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), was nominated Sept. 30. She withdrew from consideration following a controversy about whether she accessed a law enforcement database in connection with Ritter’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Villafuerte has denied the allegations.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) asked the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee not to hold a vote on the Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee until Sessions receives more information about the candidate, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

Sessions, the panel’s top Republican, wrote in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday that the record for Stephanie Villafuerte is “incomplete.” Read her questionnaire submitted to the panel here.

The Alabama senator told Leahy he had concerns about the firing of a federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around Villafeurte. President Barack Obama nominated Villafeurte on Sept. 30 to be Colorado’s top federal prosecutor.

Sessions also asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for using a restricted government database. Voorhis had assisted the 2006 campaign of Republican Bob Bob Beauprez, who ran an ad about an undocumented immigrant whose information was in the law enforcement database.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Villafuerte is a long-time aide to Gov. Bill Ritter (D), who was Beauprez’s opponent in 2006. Ritter has defended Villafuerte in the matter.

Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from the U.S. Attorney nominee. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

Sen. Jeff Sessions questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday about a fired federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around the U.S. Attorney nominee for Colorado, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

The Alabama Republican asked Napolitano why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for accessing a restricted government database when his boss, Tony Rouco, wasn’t fired, despite a finding that Ruoco hadn’t been truthful about the use of the database, according to The Post.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes. Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from Villafuerte.

Villafuerte, a long-time aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), has denied the allegations.

Voorhis was charged in 2007 with using the National Crime Information Center database to check the background on an undocumented immigrant whose case was featured in an ad by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. Voorhis said he was authorized to use the database by his supervisor. He was later acquitted by a federal jury.

“I am not personally familiar with this,” Napolitano said at the Department of Homeland Security oversight hearing, according to The Post. “But I will become personally familiar with it.”

Villafuerte has said her disputed contacts with the DA’s office in October 2006 concerned an alleged threat against then-candidate Ritter, not about accessing a database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Read our previous report here.

Colorado Republicans have called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Villafuerte. Sessions is the top Republican on the Judiciary panel. Yesterday, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

The Judiciary committee has yet to schedule a vote on her nomination. President Barack Obama tapped Villafuerte for the post on Sept. 30.

Anwar al-Aulaqi

A federal arrest warrant issued in Colorado for radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was withdrawn in 2002 because prosecutors ultimately lacked evidence that he had committed a crime, interim U.S. Attorney Dave Gaouette told the Denver Post last week.

Awlaki has emerged as a key figure as investigators look into the Nov. 5 shooting deaths at Fort Hood. He was an imam at a suburban mosque attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour. Awlaki praised suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan on his blog last month.

ABC News first reported that Colorado prosecutors had issued but then withdrawn a warrant for his arrest on passport fraud charges.

Gaouette, who was an assistant U.S. Attorney for the office in 2002, told the Denver Post that he and other federal prosecutors in his office held a meeting and decided there was insufficient evidence to present a passport fraud case to a grand jury.

“We asked the court to dismiss the complaint and withdraw the warrant in the interest of justice,” Gaouette told the Post. “There is no sense putting a person through an indictment when the government knows all along that we don’t have evidence or that we can prove the violation beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Gaouette’s term as interim U.S. Attorney for Colorado was set to expire on Tuesday, but has been extended by judicial decree until a new U.S. Attorney is appointed, according to his office. President Obama’s nominee for the position, Stephanie Villafuerte, is awaiting confirmation from the Senate. The Colorado Republican Party chairman and other conservatives have pressed the nominee over allegations she used a restricted federal database to help the 2006 campaign of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

Gaouette also said his office never received information about the cleric’s possible ties to terrorists, contrary to what sources told ABC News.

“Even if there was information to us at the time that he associated or communicated with other people, that would not be a basis to get a criminal charge unless those communications were violations of criminal law,” Gaouette told the Post. “That has never been done, and that will never be done, and prosecutors make their decisions on the facts at the time.”

The Colorado Republican Party chairman asked the Denver police chief yesterday to shed more light on whether the state’s U.S. Attorney nominee, Stephanie Villafuerte, used a restricted federal database to help the 2006 campaign of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

State GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams sent a letter to Denver police chief Gerry Whitman urging him to respond to questions raised by statements from Villafuerte, Ritter and Denver’s Assistant District Attorney Chuck Lepley last month. The statements, which were submitted to The Denver Post, dispute the database allegations and have drawn the Denver Police Department into the controversy.

The Villafuerte camp claims that her disputed contacts with the DA’s office in October 2006 concerned an alleged threat against then-candidate Ritter, not about accessing a database for political purposes, which could be a crime.

Lepley said nearly two years ago that he “probably” discussed the alleged threat with Whitman and other police department officials, according to federal court testimony obtained by The Post about the matter. Whitman declined to comment to the newspaper about whether he spoke to Lepley about the matter. The police department never generated a report or any other documents about the alleged threat, according to The Post.

In yesterday’s letter, the GOP leader Wadhams wrote: “Chief Whitman, I believe you have been put in a very uncomfortable and unfair position by Ms. Villafuerte, Governor Ritter, and the Denver District Attorney’s office by their rather creative explanations of their actions, but the public deserves a clear answer from you and your department.”

A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Main Justice on Wadham’s letter.

Wadhams has been highly critical of Villafuerte for her reported conversations with staffers in the Denver District Attorney’s office about an illegal immigrant who was featured in an ad against Ritter produced by his opponent, Republican Bob Beauprez.

But Villafuerte, who is Ritter’s deputy chief of staff, told the FBI in 2007 that she had “no conversations” with the DA employees about the undocumented immigrant, Carlos Estrada-Medina, who is also an alleged heroin dealer, The Post reported in October.

Republicans charge that Villafuerte is being treated differently in the matter than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis, who lost his job after accessing the same database on behalf of the Beauprez campaign.

“Colorado deserves better than a U.S. Attorney who apparently might have used her former employer, the Denver District Attorney’s Office, for blatant partisan political purposes,” Wadhams said in an October letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

The nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for Colorado has rejected allegations that she played a role in the use of a restricted government database to aid Gov. Bill Ritter (D) in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign, The Denver Post reported today.

Stephanie Villafuerte, who is Ritter’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in a letter to Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) obtained by The Post that her answer to the allegation is “emphatically no.”

Colorado Republicans have also raised questions about whether Villafuerte had discussions with staffers in the Denver District Attorney’s Office about an illegal immigrant who was featured in an ad against Ritter produced by Republican Bob Beauprez’s gubernatorial campaign.

Use of the federal criminal records database for political purposes could be a crime. She told the FBI in 2007 that she had “no conversations” with the DA employees about Carlos Estrada-Medina, who is also an alleged heroin dealer. Estrada-Medina had once obtained a plea deal under the alias of Walter Ramo when Ritter was Denver’s district attorney, according to The Post.

“Was I honest when I told the FBI that I did not have conversations with anyone at the Denver District Attorney’s Office . . . regarding the Ramo/Estrada Medina case?” Villafuerte wrote. “The answer is absolutely yes.”

Republicans charge that Villafuerte is being treated differently in the matter than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis, who lost his job after accessing the same database on behalf of the Beauprez campaign. Colorado state Sen. Ted Harvey and other state Republicans sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, asking the panel to investigate whether Villafuerte used the database.

The committee has yet to schedule a vote on her nomination. President Barack Obama tapped Villafuerte for the post on Sept. 30.

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) on Monday defended his aide, Stephanie Villafuerte, whose nomination to be the state’s next U.S. Attorney is under attack from Republicans, The Denver Post reports.

“I believe Stephanie did nothing wrong,” Ritter said during a radio interview on  The Mike Rosen Show on KOA-AM.

Republicans have questioned whether Villafuerte asked employees of the Denver district attorney’s office — which Ritter had once headed — to access a restricted government database to help his 2006 campaign for governor. Asking someone to access the National Crime Information Center database for non-law enforcement purposes can be a crime, according to The Post.

In 2007 Villafuerte told the FBI she had “no conversations” with the DA’s office about Carlos Estrada-Medina, an alleged heroin dealer who had struck a plea deal when Ritter was Denver’s top prosecutor. Ritter’s Republican opponent for governoer, Bob Beauprez, had featured Estrada-Medina in a campaign ad against Ritter.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis was charged with accessing the NCIC to check the alias of Estrada-Medina – and providing information about it to Beauprez’s campaign for the 2006 ad. A federal jury acquitted Voorhis in the matter, but he was fired from his job.

Gov. Bill Ritter

“[A]s a person working for the campaign [Stephanie] did a host of things to try to independently verify this identity of Carlos Estrada-Medina and could not do it,” Ritter told the radio host. “She had people who were getting public records. We as a campaign employed individuals — interns — to go to the courthouse and get the records. We got nothing from the DA’s office.”

When asked about a voice mail Villafuerte left for the DA’s office’ spokeswoman about Estrada-Medina shortly someone in the office accessed the NCIC records on him, Ritter said: “I think it’s dangerous to just actually take it from logs. Those are one- to two-minute calls, and if you leave a message with somebody it’s logged as a one-minute call,” adding, “They may not have talked at all.”

Villafuerte is nominated to replace Troy Eid, who resigned in January as the U.S. Attorney for the  District of Colorado