John Suthers (gov)

Former Colorado U.S. Attorney John Suthers on Tuesday took his oath of office as Attorney General for a second term, the Denver Post reported.

Suthers, who was the U.S. Attorney for Colorado from 2001 to 2005, is one of three highest-ranking Republicans in the state and was the the top vote-getter in any statewide race last year.

With 86 precincts reporting, he was reelected with 57 percent of the vote, Main Justice reported.

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.

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

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

Stephanie Villafuerte (University of Denver, UCLA School of Law) is nominated to replace  Troy Eid, who resigned in January  as the U.S. Attorney for the  District of Colorado.

Her vitals:

• Born in Omaha, Neb. in 1965.
• Has been Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s (D) deputy chief of staff since January 2007.
• Headed Ritter’s transition team following his November 2006 election.
• Worked in the research/response unit in the Ritter for Governor campaign from July 2006  to November 2006.
• Was Chief Deputy District Attorney in the Denver District Attorney’s office from January 2001 to July 2006.
• Served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Colorado from May 1998 to January 2001.
• Worked as Deputy District Attorney in the Denver District Attorney’s office from October 1991 to May 1998.
• Handled approximately 75 jury trials, all of which she was the lead chair.

Click here for her full disclosure.

UPDATE: On her Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure Villafuerte reports earning a salary of $130,000 in Ritter’s office. On her Senate Judiciary financial disclosure she reports assets of $1,246,200 and liabilities of $151,500 for a net worth of $1,094,700.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), a 2008 Republican presidential candidate and fierce opponent of illegal immigration, is criticizing the nomination of Stephanie Villafuerte for District of Colorado U.S. Attorney.

Tom Tancredo (gov)

President Barack Obama officially nominated Villafuerte (University of Denver, University of California at Los Angeles) on Sept. 30. The deputy chief of staff to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) would be the first Latina to serve as Colorado’s top federal prosecutor.

In a column on the conservative WorldNetDaily Web site, Tancredo cites a controversy from Ritter’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign against Republican Bob Beauprez that resulted in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent losing his job.

The agent, Cory Voorhis, was acquitted of charges he improperly accessed a federal crime database for information the Beauprez campaign used to make a campaign ad that attacked Ritter for reaching plea agreement with illegal immigrants when he was the Denver District Attorney. One of those undocumented immigrants was Carlos Estrada-Medina, an accused heroin dealer.

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

After the ad was released, Villafuerte called a staffer at the DA’s office and apparently asked about Estrada-Medina. The DA’s office also accessed the same information as Voorhis in the National Crime Information Computer database.

The DA’s office said that the check on Estrada-Medina was done in response to media calls. But records released by the DA’s office in response to a request by The Denver Post “show no such media deluge. Instead, they indicate that the DA office’s work on Estrada-Medina also had its roots in a campaign,” the newspaper reported in 2008.

Voorhis lost his job over the matter. Tancredo thinks there’s a double standard.

“As the U.S. attorney, will Stephanie Villafuerte offer help in investigating the corruption, perjury and malfeasance rampant in the Denver regional office of ICE?,” writes Tancredo. “Will she be an advocate for the effective enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws after participating in the disgusting vendetta against ICE agent Cory Voorhis? The answer to those questions is probably … no se puede,” wrote Tancredo.

WND is home to conservative conspiracy theories on everything from Obama’s citizenship to the belief that health care reform would lead to “concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.” Recent headlines include “Will your thoughts be subject to hate crime laws?” and “How to survive the coming martial law in America.”

If confirmed, Villafuerte would replace Acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado David Gaouette, who has been in the position since Jan. 10 after Bush appointee Troy A. Eid resigned. Gaouette’s current 120-day extension expires on Dec. 8, at which point the U.S. District Court for Colorado would appoint a interim U.S. Attorney until a presidential nominee is sworn in.