Tim Johnson (DOJ)

Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Moreno will become the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas after current U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson leaves at the end of this week, The Houston Chronicle reports.

Johnson has led the Houston-based office since the resignation of Don DeGabrielle in November 2008. He had been DeGabrielle’s First Assistant since 2006. Earlier this week, federal judges in the district voted to make Moreno the district’s interim U.S. Attorney.

Last month Johnson said he would join the Houston firm of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell after his resignation became effective on Feb. 13.

President Obama has yet to nominate a permanent U.S. Attorney for the district. Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison have recommended Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson for the post. Magidson heads the organized crime drug enforcement task force for the Southwest region. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who chairs the Texas House Democratic delegation, is also making U.S. Attorney recommendations, but has yet to announce his candidate.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas will resign next month to enter private practice in the Houston area, The Associated Press reported today.

Tim Johnson (DOJ)

Court-appointed U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson will join Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell at its Houston law offices after his resignation becomes effective on Feb. 13, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Legal Trade blog.

Johnson has led the Houston-based U.S. Attorney’s office since the resignation of Don DeGabrielle in November 2008. He had been DeGabrielle’s First Assistant since 2006.

“The past almost four years have been the most rewarding of my life,” Johnson said in a news release. “It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside [the office's staffers].”

President Barack Obama has yet to announce his nominee to lead the Southern District office.

Republican Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison have recommended Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson for the post. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who chairs the Texas delegation of House Democrats, is also making U.S. Attorney recommendations, but has yet to announce his candidate.

The Dallas Morning News outed Republican Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday for making a rather uncharacteristic decision in one of their U.S. Attorney recommendations.

Robert Pitman, a Western District of Texas U.S. magistrate judge who is gay, was one of two people the GOP senators recommended for the San Antonio-based prosecutor’s post. The Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy group, gave Cornyn and Huthison a 0 percent rating on its report card of the 110th Congress.

It’s unclear whether Hutchison knew what she was getting into by endorsing Pitman. Her spokesperson, Jeff Sadosky, told the newspaper he wasn’t sure if she was aware of his sexual orientation. Cornyn spokesperson Kevin McLaughlin told The Morning News his boss knew Pitman was gay, but said it didn’t figure into the senator’s decision.

“A person’s sexuality has no bearing on his qualifications for a job. … It’s just not even remotely considered,” McLaughlin told the newspaper.

Some Texas social conservatives aren’t too happy about the revelation, which could make life difficult for Hutchison, who is running for Texas governor. Her opponent in the GOP primary in March is Republican Gov. Rick Perry, from the party’s dominant conservative wing.

Texas Home School Coalition president Tim Lambert, who is a Perry supporter, told The Morning News that recommending Pitman was “very unusual and disturbing.” He added: ”I suspect that a lot of Republican primary voters would find it interesting that Senator Hutchison would make that recommendation.”

Pitman, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, is well respected in the Texas legal community, according to the newspaper. A recent bar association poll ranked him as the most capable judge in Travis County, The Morning News said. However, it appears Michael McCrum, a San Antonio-based lawyer at the Thompson & Knight law firm, has the inside track on the job. McCrum was recommended by both the Republican senators and Texas’s House Democrats, making him a consensus choice.

The chairman of the Texas Democratic delegation in Congress, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin, has been in a fierce battle with Cornyn for control of the recommendation process. President Barack Obama ultimately makes the nominations.

John Cornyn (gov)

With the White House unwilling to consider his pick for Dallas U.S. Attorney, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Thursday eased up in his fight to get Sarah Saldana nominated, The Dallas Morning News reported. Although he still prefers the North Texas Assistant U.S. Attorney for the job, Cornyn said during a conference call with reporters that he is willing to consider other candidates, The Morning News reported.

Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) have been squaring off with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) over whether Republicans or Democrats will be in charge of recommending U.S. Attorney candidates to the White House. Cornyn has threatened to block any nominee who was not approved by a screening committee set up by the Republican senators. Doggett has insisted that Texas Democrats will have the final word.

During the Thursday call, Cornyn’s tone seemed to soften. “The ball is really in the White House’s court,” the senator said. He said he would characterize his discussions with the White House as “a negotiation,” The Morning News reported.

Doggett said on Thursday said in a statement: ”Since there are a number of well-qualified individuals for U.S. attorney, I have no doubt this will be resolved from our delegation’s recommendations.”

According to Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D), Texas Democrats are unwilling to recommend Saldana, The Morning News reported. While they have yet to publicly announce their choices for the Dallas-based job,  Democrats have recommended Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams to President Obama, The Morning News has reported.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said the senator is waiting for an answer from the White House as to why Saldana is not being considered, The Morning News reported. “She’s an arguably liberal Democrat who’s been endorsed by [abortion rights group] NARAL and a lot of liberal organizations who Senator Cornyn does not have anything in common with,” McLaughlin said, adding, “It’s not like it’s Antonin Scalia,” he added, referring to the conservative Supreme Court justice.

John Cornyn (gov)

Here’s a man-bites-dog story: John Cornyn has taken his fight to get a Democrat confirmed as North Texas U.S. Attorney to the Federalist Society.

In a speech Friday to members of the conservative legal organization’s Dallas chapter, Cornyn touted his pick for the job, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana. “It would set a bad precedent if they [the administration] bowed to political pressure” and didn’t nominate her, Cornyn said, according to the Dallas Morning News.

That “political pressure” would be from Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who is furious that Cornyn and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) have refused to stand aside and let Texas Democrats recommend the candidates. But senators have the power to block nominees, so the White House has been deferential to their views — even when they are Republicans.

Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has vowed to block any nominee who didn’t meet his approval. He finessed the matter by picking Saldana, a Democrat, for the Dallas-based job. It was a canny move. The Obama administration doesn’t want to be accused, as President George W. Bush was, of politicizing the U.S. Attorney selections, and has gone out of its way to find consensus candidates. Now Cornyn gets to call himself bipartisan while also appearing to be in charge of the selection process. All this undoubtedly really steams Doggett.

Poor Saldana has been caught in the crossfire. According to The Morning News, Saldana was on the Democrats’ short list — until the Republicans began backing her. Then, she was off the Democratic list. Read our recent stories about the dueling Texas lists here and here.

Read here a joint news release Cornyn issued with Hutchison demanding the Lone Star State Democrats back Saldana. Saldana is not on the Democratic delegation’s official list, despite being a Democratic donor to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

The Federalist Society has been an incubator for conservative legal talent. During the Bush administration, it served as a stepping stone to high-ranking legal jobs.

Cornyn told the group:

“I have not heard a single legitimate reason offered by them to oppose her,” Cornyn said. “The real reason for opposition is rooted more in politics, not merit.”

The Democrats are pushing for either Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore or Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams for the Northern District spot.

Hutchison, meanwhile, has turned her attention to running for the Republican nomination for governor, challenging Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

The chair of the Texas Democratic House delegation wants to make clear he didn’t buckle to pressure from the state’s Republican senators when he agreed to a compromise candidate for the Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney post.

There was “no ‘retreat’ whatsoever,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said in a statement emailed to us today.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (gov)

We reported last week that Doggett supported President Obama’s decision to nominate San Antonio-based lawyer Michael McCrum for the post.

McCrum was also recommended in another list of U.S. Attorney candidates sent to the White House by Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, who refuse to cede control of the nomination process just because a Democrat now holds the White House.

There were “tense consultations” between Doggett and the senators on the Western District U.S. Attorney pick, The Austin American-Statesman reported. Doggett’s top choice was Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, who is from his Austin home base. But McCrum emerged as the consensus pick. Cornyn, a Senate Judiciary Committee member, has vowed to block any U.S. Attorney pick that didn’t pass through a screening committee set up earlier this year by the Republicans.

In an interview with Main Justice last June, Doggett insisted the Democratic delegation would have the final say on recommendations to the White House.

But given that the Republican senators’ views are clearly carrying weight, we added in our story last week: “It would appear that Doggett has had to retreat somewhat from his tough talk earlier in the year.” That’s the sentence that Doggett is objecting to. (We did make an effort to get Doggett’s views last week, but his spokeswoman didn’t have much to tell us).

Okay, so now we have Doggett’s response. Here is his full statement:

Regarding Main Justice’s Friday story titled ‘Dueling Lists,’ I want to make one thing clear: there has been no “retreat” whatsoever.

President Obama is fully honoring his previous public commitment that no Texas federal judge, attorney, or marshal will be nominated without the Texas Democratic Delegation’s support. As to U.S. Attorney for Western District, my personal first choice was our outstanding Travis County Attorney David Escamilla. But, at my Democratic colleagues’ request, I agreed to submit his name simultaneously with others, without prioritization, including LULAC-supported Michael McCrum. Without full confidence in McCrum, I would not have recommended him.

The Texas Democratic Delegation does not make recommendations to the Senators.

The Senators can, of course, decide whether they want to attempt to block any of these well-qualified individuals.

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.”

Time was, members of the president’s party steered U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House. But in Texas, a state proudly resistant to, er, convention, Sen. John Cornyn (R) is threatening to block anyone but Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana for the U.S. Attorney post in North Texas. It’s the latest salvo in Cornyn’s long-running feud with Texas House Democrats over who’s in control of the process.

The Dallas Morning News has the story.

Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison plucked Saldana out of a group of candidates evaluated by their screening committee. Saldana heads the Fraud and Public Corruption Division in the Dallas-based Northern District.

“It’s the president’s prerogative to nominate anybody he wants,” Cornyn said, echoing comments he made to us in July. “But it’s the prerogative of the Senate to decide whether those individuals will be confirmed.”

Cornyn’s remarks come a day after Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) slipped two names to the White House for U.S. Attorney in the state’s Western and Eastern districts. Read our coverage here.

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.

White House counsel Greg Craig had tried to mediate this feud, without much success, and in a manner that managed to infuriate the House Democrats back in March. But Craig is reportedly on his way out of the White House after he was blamed for botching the politics of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility closing. It’s unclear who’s in charge of this mess now down at 1600 Pennsylvania.

According to the Morning News, Cornyn and Huchison also sent the White House a list of names on Wednesday – for all four U.S. Attorney posts in Texas. We will let you know when we find out who they recommended.

Bur for now, we return to the Northern District.

The Morning News reports:

Texas House Democrats, including Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, have rejected Saldana in favor of Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams. Other names could be considered, and a spokesman for the chairman of the House Democratic delegation, Lloyd Doggett, said Wednesday that “consultations” are ongoing.

It’s unclear why the delegation snubbed Saldana, whom the newspaper 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.

Cornyn interviewed Moore and Williams but said he couldn’t support them for the post. “We thought Sarah Saldana was the best candidate, and that’s why we sent her name to the White House,” he told the Morning News. “My hope is the White House will choose her and make that appointment. At this point I’m not prepared to support any other individual.”

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.

A controversial screening committee set up by Texas’s two Republican senators has interviewed every person on the White House’s list of U.S. Attorney candidates for Texas, the chairman of the panel said Thursday.

Dan Hedges

But the screening panel, convened by GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, also interviewed candidates who were not forwarded by President Obama, said Dan Hedges, a partner at Porter & Hedges LLP in Houston. That means there is still potential for conflict if the senators ultimately back candidates who don’t have the imprimatur of the Texas House Democrats.

The Republican senators and Texas Democrats led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin liberal, have been squabbling for months over who gets to make recommendations to the White House. Cornyn, a conservative, has threatened to block candidates not approved by his and Hutchison’s screening panel. Read our previous reports here and here and here.

Still, Hedges’s description of the screening process punctures some of the air from the drama. For example, the senators’ committee doesn’t appear to have gone rouge – it interviewed all the White House candidates. Surely some from that list will win the Republican senators’ approval? So the whole exercise could end up being a lot of chest-beating on both sides.

What’s not known yet is how the GOP-led screening committee ranked the candidates – or if the senators picked any finalists who were not on the White House lists. Finalists for the Beaumont-based Eastern District and the Dallas-based Northern District were slated to be in Washington today to meet with Cornyn and Hutchison, we previously reported.

KFDM News in Beaumont reported that Criminal District Judge John Stevens of Beaumont “was approached” about taking the Eastern District U.S. Attorney job. The former U.S. Attorney for the district, Rebecca Gregory, resigned in May. The office is current led by interim U.S. Attorney John Malcolm Bales.

The Dallas Morning News reported names of potential candidates for the Northern District here. The Austin-American Statesman identified candidates for the San Antonio-based Western District here.

The White House sent four names for the Northern District — and the screening committee interviewed two additional candidates not on the president’s list, Hedges said. Likewise, the White House sent only one name for the Eastern District, but the screening panel ranked two candidates, Hedges said.

The White House list contained “three or four” names for the Western District in San Antonio and three for the Houston-based Southern District, Hedges said.

He added that interviews for the Dallas-based Northern District of Texas and the Beaumont-based Eastern District of Texas were completed about three weeks ago, followed by interviews for the Southern and Western districts.

Hedges, a Republican, was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas from 1981-1985. He, Dan Webb, and Rudy Giuliani co-founded the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force — which is holding a big conference in Washington this week, affording more than one potential U.S. Attorney candidate a chance to meet with his or her home-state congressional leaders, who are here in Washington because Congress is in session.

UPDATE

Hutchison said in an interview with Main Justice that she and Cornyn held interviews this week with candidates from the Republican-backed screening committee. The Texas senator declined to comment on who they interviewed and the number of candidates they met on Capitol Hill. She said they will continue to hold interviews next week for candidates who weren’t able to come to D.C. this week.

“There isn’t any need to say who we interviewed at this point,” Hutchison said.

Andrew Ramonas contributed to this report.