John B. Stevens Jr. (Lamar University)

John B. Stevens Jr. (Lamar University, University of Houston Law Center ) is nominated to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. He would replace Rebecca A. Gregory, who headed the office from 2007 until earlier this year. The district’s current acting U.S. Attorney is John Malcolm Bales.

Stevens’ vitals:

• Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1952.
• Attended but did not earn a degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
• Earned a Master of Social Science degree from Syracuse University.
• Has been a Criminal District Court Judge for Jefferson County, Texas, since 2007.
• Was a private contract attorney in Beaumont, Texas, in 2006.
• Worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from 1985 to 2005.
• Was an associate attorney with Provost & Umphrey, LLP from 1981 to 1985.
• Served as assistant criminal district attorney for Jefferson County, Texas, from 1979 to 1981.
• Has tried approximately 100 cases to final disposition, serving as chief counsel on approximately 90 of those cases and 10 as associate counsel.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

On his Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure statement, Stevens reported income of $50,000 annually from a “deferred benefit” from the Texas Teachers Retirement System. He also reported earning a salary of $15,000 from the Criminal District Court of Jefferson County, Texas, and a salary of $150,000 from the state of Texas.

On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure he reported assets of $1.35 million, mostly from securities and a thrift savings account, and no liabilities.

Texas’s Republican senators and the state’s House Democrats have submitted separate lists of U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House, setting the scene for a partisan shootout.

John Cornyn (gov)

We reported yesterday that Sen. John Cornyn is threatening to block anyone but Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana for the U.S. Attorney post in North Texas. And the Texas House Democrats, led by delegation chairman Rep. Lloyd Doggett, don’t want Saldana. So that’s one showdown.

Then today, we got our hands on this news release issued by Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that appears to raise the stakes. The Republican senators, not willing to be cut out of the nomination process just because a Democrat now holds the White House, have submitted a complete list of candidates for all four of the state’s U.S. Attorney offices.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Cornyn reaffirmed his intention to block any U.S. Attorney nominee that did not go through his Republican screening committee. ”It’s the president’s prerogative to nominate anybody he wants,” Cornyn said. “But it’s the prerogative of the Senate to decide whether those individuals will be confirmed.”

Here is the list of the GOP recommended candidates, from the Cornyn-Hutchison news release:

Eastern District:

-John B. Stevens Jr. (Recommended by Texas senators and Doggett): He is a judge in the Jefferson County Criminal District Court in Texas.

-John Malcolm Bales (Recommended by Texas senators): He is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

Northern District:

-Sarah Saldana (Recommended by Texas senators): The Assistant U.S. Attorney heads the fraud and public corruption division in the Dallas-based Northern District.

Southern District of Texas:

-Kenneth Magidson (Recommended by Texas senators): The Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Houston-based office heads the organized crime drug enforcement task force for the Southwest region.

Western District of Texas:

-Michael McCrum (Recommended by Texas senators and Doggett): He is a San Antonio-based lawyer at the Thompson & Knight law firm, where he focuses on white collar criminal defense. Read more about him here.

-Robert Pitman (Recommended by Texas senators): He is a U.S. magistrate judge in the Western District of Texas.

In two instances, the candidates picked by the senators were also acceptable to Democrats — and they now appear on their way toward nomination. As we reported Wednesday, they are McCrum in San Antonio and Stevens for the Beaumont-based Eastern district. Doggett issued this news release Wednesday formally recommending McCrum and Stevens.

Doggett said in the news release that he reached agreement with the White House before making those two recommendations on behalf of the Texas Democrats. The negotiation included ”tense consultations” between Doggett and the senators, The Austin American-Statesman reported yesterday. The Obama White House has been reluctant to put names forward that Republican senators don’t support.

It would appear that Doggett has had to retreat somewhat from his tough talk earlier in the year. In an interview with Main Justice in June, he insisted the Democratic delegation would have the final say on recommendations to the White House. But Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, in Doggett’s Austin home base, was the congressman’s first choice for the Western District, the Austin American-Statesman reported. But Escamilla didn’t have the support of the Republican senators and was eliminated.

Texas Democrats support Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams for the Northern District. But in the face of apparent opposition from the GOP senators, the Democrats have made no formal announcement.

“We thought Sarah Saldana was the best candidate and that’s why we sent her name to the White House,” Cornyn told reporters yesterday about his Northern District choice. “My hope is that the White House will choose her and make that appointment.”

It’s unclear why the House Democrats snubbed Saldana, whom the Morning News describes as “a candidate with strong Democratic credentials.” She played a key role in a Dallas City Hall corruption trial that some Democrats cast as politically motivated, but Johnson said her involvement was not a factor.

Doggett said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News that the Texas Democratic delegation “never sought confrontation with our senators.”

“I understand they were more comfortable with an inside Republican process, but elections matter,” he said. “Insisting that one and only one person whom they select can be appointed to one of these positions would be a clear abuse of authority.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)  submitted recommendations for two Texas U.S. Attorney posts, his office announced today.

They are:

Michael McCrum (Thompson & Knight)

-Michael W. McCrum (Western District of Texas): He is a San Antonio-based lawyer at the Thompson & Knight law firm, where he focuses on white collar criminal defense. Read more about him here.

-John B. Stevens Jr. (Eastern District of Texas): He is a judge in the Jefferson County Criminal District Court in Texas.

John B. Stevens Jr. (Lamar University)

The Austin Democrat made the recommendations on behalf of the Texas Democratic House delegation, which has “completed its consultation with the White House and has reached agreement,” according to a news release from Doggett’s office.

His statement suggests Texas House Democrats may have reached some kind of détente with Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, who’ve been wrestling with Democrats for control of the judicial and U.S. Attorney recommendations for the state.

To the ire of Texas Democrats, the conservative senators earlier this year established their own screening committee to review U.S. Attorney candidates. In July the senators interviewed their own candidates in meetings in Washington, but they declined to reveal any names. (Hutchison, meanwhile, has mounted a campaign for Texas governor.)

We have no special insight here. But we do know the White House has been bending over backwards to defer to Republican senators in the U.S. Attorney selection process. So, if McCrum and Stevens were recommended in agreement with the White House, that could mean Cornyn has signaled he won’t go through with this threat to “blue slip” the nominees.

Doggett spokesperson Sarah Dohl declined to comment, except to say, “We’ve had extended consultation with the White House” on the recommended nominees.