Thomas G. Walker (Courtesy Alston + Bird)

Thomas Walker (Baylor University, Campbell University School of Law) is nominated to replace George E. B. Holding as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

His vitals:

• Born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1964.
• Completed one year of a Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Has been a partner in the litigation and trial practice group at Alston & Bird, LLP in Charlotte, N.C., since August 2003.
• Was special counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) in Raleigh, N.C., from July 2001 to July 2003.
• Served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina from August 1994 to June 2001.
• Worked as a part-time instructor at the American Institute of Paralegal Studies in the spring and fall of 1992 and the spring of 1993.
• Was the assistant district attorney in Charlotte, N.C.,-based Mecklenburg County DA’s office from September 1990 to July 1994.
• Clerked for Van Winkle, Buck, Wall, Starnes & Davis, P.A. in Asheville, N.C., during the summer of 1989.
• Worked as a part time law clerk for Whitney E. Fanning in Waco, Texas, during the summer of 1988.
• Was an office assistant/runner at Tracy, Crumley & Holland in Fort Worth, Texas, from September 1986 to June 1987.
• Worked as a camp counselor at Kanakuk/Kanakomo Kamps, Inc. in Branson, Mo., during the summer of 1986.
• Has tried approximately 40 jury trials to verdict as assistant district attorney. Has tried approximately 15 cases to trial as Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

UPDATE: On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Walker reported assets of $1.5 million. The majority of his assets are in his four properties including a personal residence valued at $425,000, a second residence valued at $250,000, a vacation residence valued at $310,000 and an undeveloped lot valued at $5,300. However, Walker still owes $658,300 on the properties and $6,100 in accounts and bills due. In total, Walker has liabilities of $664,400, resulting in a net worth of $873,800.

On his Office of Government Ethics disclosure he reported earning from Alston & Bird, LLP for 2008 and most of 2009 was $590,833. This includes his salary and bonuses.

President Obama nominated U.S. Attorneys for Wyoming, the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Eastern District of Michigan today. They are:

• Christopher A. Crofts (Wyoming): Gov. David Freudenthal’s legal counsel since 2006 previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 16 years. He would replace Bush holdover Kelly Rankin, who has headed the office since 2008.

• 

  James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal).

  James L. Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin):  The Assistant U.S. Attorney has served in his current role since 1985. While working in the office he simultaneously has had stints as  principal deputy director for the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, civil division chief for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Michigan and a Justice Department attaché. He would replace Steven Biskupic who was appointed U.S. Attorney by Bush in May 2002. In 2007, Biskupic and his office came under review by congressional investigators looking into the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys. He resigned in January to join the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich as a litigator.

• 

  Thomas G. Walker (Alston & Bird)

  Thomas G. Walker (Eastern District of North Carolina): The partner at Alston & Bird, LLP has been with the firm since 2003. He previously served as special counsel to North Carolina attorney general Roy A. Cooper, III,  an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and an assistant district attorney for Mecklenburg County, N.C. Walker would replace Bush holdover George E. B. Holding. Holding is overseeing federal probes of two prominent Democrats: Former Gov. Mike Easley and two-time presidential candidate, ex-Sen. John Edwards.

• 

  Barbara L. McQuade (ICLE).

  Barbara L. McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan): The Assistant U.S. Attorney has served in her role for 11 years. Simultaneously she has served as deputy chief of the national security unit since 2005. McQuade previously was an associate at Butzel Long, P.C. She would replace Stephen J. Murphy who became U.S. Attorney in 2006. In 2008 he became a federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Obama has now made a total of 34 U.S. Attorney nominations. The full Senate has considered 24 of those nominees and they were all confirmed by unanimous consent.

Ryan Reilly contributed to this report.

Benjamin David (gov)

Benjamin David, the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties in North Carolina, on Wednesday announced that he is removing his name from consideration for nomination as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Wilmington television station WECT reports.

David was one of three people that Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) had recommended to President Obama. The other two people are Hampton Dellinger, a partner at the Chapel Hill law firm of  Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, and Thomas Walker, a partner at the Charlotte law firm of  Alston and Bird.

David cited his desire to remain in the DA’s office, among other personal and professional reasons, for his decision to withdraw from consideration, WECT reported. According to the television station, David said he plans to run for re-election as district attorney next year.

Obama has yet to name a nominee, which might be due in part to the fact that Hagan has said she wants the current Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney, George Holding, to stay in office until he can complete probes of two prominent Democrats: former Gov. Mike Easley and former Sen.  John Edwards.

The Associated Press profiles George Holding, the U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, N.C., who’s managed to hang onto his job because he’s investigating prominent Democrats, making other prominent Democrats scared to touch him.

George Holding (gov)

Read The AP profile here.

The profile is nicely written but left me with a lot of unanswered questions. For example, what are the political pressures on Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.)? As the state’s Democratic senator, Hagan gets to recommend the next U.S. Attorney. But she is obviously one of those Democrats scared to death of this mess, because she’s recommended that President Obama retain Holding, a protege of the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a far-right conservative.

Hagan wants Holding to finish his investigations of Gov. Mike Easley and former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Read our previous report here.

The story quotes Helms’s former chief of staff,  Jimmy Broughton, saying: ”One thing George is not is political.”

There wasn’t a thing about Helms that was not political. So to me, this statement really translates as: “We are going to tell people George is not political, so he can finish off these highly political investigations of Easley and Edwards.” But maybe I’m wrong. Readers, any thoughts?

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) told President Obama this week she wants Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney George E. B. Holding to have some role in the North Carolina Eastern District that would allow him to continue overseeing ongoing probes of prominent Democrats.

George Holding (gov)

Holding has served as U.S. Attorney since 2006. He is supervising two high profile investigations of former Gov. Mike Easley and John Edwards, the two-time former Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina.

The U.S. Attorney is probing Easley on the free use of cars and flights on jets owned by the former governor’s political supporters. Edwards is being investigated on whether he improperly steered money from his campaign or related non-profits to Rielle Hunter, the video-maker with whom he had an affair and a child.

Hagan recommended that Holding remain as U.S. Attorney until the two probes are over. But said she would also support another U.S. Attorney in the office if Holding could still oversee the investigations. The North Carolina senator said she also supported Benjamin David, district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties; Hampton Dellinger, a partner at Chapel Hill law firm Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson; and Thomas Walker, a partner at Charlotte law firm Alston and Bird.

She said in her letter to Obama:

“As I have previously discussed with the Office of the White House Counsel, it is my belief that the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, George Holding, should be allowed to complete the ongoing investigations of public officials in the state. During my conversations with the Office of the White House Counsel, there was an interest expressed by the Counsel’s office to potentially appoint a separate individual to begin handling other matters not related to these investigations.”

Justice Department spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said there can only be one U.S. Attorney in office at a time. But she said there can be a U.S. Attorney and an acting U.S. Attorney when there is a U.S. Attorney recusal.

U.S. Attorneys often recuse themselves from cases to avoid a potential conflict of interest. If an Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney were put in place and the Bush-appointed Holding became an acting U.S. Attorney in charge of the probes, Republicans would be hard pressed to find Democratic improriety in the investigations — Hagan’s apparent goal.

Conservatives could have some doubts about Dellinger if he were confirmed as the next U.S. Attorney. Dellinger was special counsel and deputy attorney general for then-Attorney General Easley.

The full biographies of the Eastern District candidates from Hagen are here:

-Benjamin David currently serves as the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties, leading 45 public servants that prosecute over 75,000 cases a year. A graduate of Wake Forest Law, David worked as an associate at Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP prior to election as the Assistant District Attorney in Wilmington in 1999.

Thomas Walker (Alson and Bird)

Hampton Dellinger (Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson)

-Hampton Dellinger is currently a partner at the law firm of Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson. Dellinger has experience working with local, state, and federal law enforcement and public officials from his rolse as Special Counsel to North Carolina’s attorney general, deputy attorney general and as former Gov. Mike Easley’s chief legal counsel.

-Thomas Walker has been a partner at Alson and Bird, LLP concentrating on complex federal and state government investigations and white-collar defense since 2003. Prior to joining the firm, Walker served as a special counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Ray Cooper from 2001 to 2003. He was also an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District for seven years.

U.S. Attorney George E. B. Holding in North Carolina’s Northern District told the Raleigh News-Observer that he wants to stay in his job until a successor is confirmed.

George Holding (gov)

“I’ve committed to serve until they find someone else they want to serve,” he said. “My intention is to do the best job I can do every day and do that until someone is confirmed and I hand them the keys.”

The problem: The FBI is investigating former Gov. Mike Easley for free use of cars and flights on jets owned by his political supporters. And John Edwards, the two-time former Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina, is under federal investigation for whether he improperly steered money from his campaign or related non-profits to Rielle Hunter, the video-maker with whom he had an affair and a child.

The Raleigh newspaper describes the situation as sensitive for Sen. Kay Hagan. Hagan is the Democrat who knocked off Elizabeth Dole (R) in last year’s Senate election. As the state’s Democratic senator, she is supposed to get to recommend a Democrat for the U.S. Attorney post following President Obama’s capture of the White House. But any move to replace Holding could look as if she’s trying to protect Democrats Edwards and Easley, local political strategists told the newspaper.