President Barack Obama has nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams to lead the Northern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney’s Office, a move that was a year in the making.

Adams, a prosecutor in the Southern District of Mississippi, emerged as a candidate for the Oxford, Miss., post in March 2010. State Sen. Gray Tollison and criminal defense attorney Christi McCoy, who are both from Oxford, also were considered for the post. Northern District of Mississippi Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis Ivy also had been mentioned as a candidate for the job.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) took the lead on selecting U.S. Attorney candidates for Mississippi’s congressional Democrats.

Thompson formally recommended McCoy for the position in 2009. But McCoy’s ties to a local private investigator, who was under investigation for his billing practices, dogged her candidacy. The Northern District U.S. Attorney’s office, which handed the case, dropped its probe last year, clearing McCoy.

Adams has spent more than two decades with the Justice Department. She was at the Northern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1989 to 2000 before joining the Southern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney’s Office.

She also was Legal Counsel to then-Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus (D) from 1988 to 1989 and clerked for U.S. District Judge Odell Horton of the Western District of Tennessee from 1984 to 1985.

Adams received her undergraduate degree from Jackson State University in 1981 and her law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1984.

The Northern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney’s Office has been led by interim U.S. Attorney John Marshall Alexander since December. He replaced Bill Martin, who had led the office since U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee, a George W. Bush appointee, resigned Jan. 31.

Obama on Wednesday also renominated S. Amanda Marshall of Oregon and Thomas Gray Walker of the Eastern District of North Carolina for U.S. Attorney posts. The Senate sent their nominations back to the president in December when the body failed to vote on the nominees before it adjourned.

These nominations are Obama’s first U.S. Attorney nominations for the year. The Senate has confirmed 76 of Obama’s U.S. Attorneys thus far. There are 93 U.S. Attorney posts across the nation.

Obama has yet to name a nominee for Southern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney. Lawyers Deborah McDonald of Natchez, Kathy Nester of Jackson, Dorsey Carson of Jackson and Constance Slaughter-Harvey of Forest have been mentioned as possible candidates for the post.

A Southern District of Mississippi prosecutor is in the mix for the Northern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney nomination, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told Main Justice Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams is being considered by the Obama administration for the Northern Mississippi slot, even though Thompson formally recommended Oxford, Miss., criminal defense attorney Christi McCoy for the post last summer.

Bennie Thompson (Gov)

McCoy was dogged by controversy because of her affiliation with a local private investigator who was under investigation for his billing practices. The Northern District U.S. Attorney’s office, which was handling the case, dropped its probe earlier this year, clearing McCoy.

Thompson, who is taking the lead on selecting U.S. attorney candidates for Mississippi’s congressional Democrats, said the White House is reviewing both Adams and McCoy for the post. He said he supports both of the candidates.

When asked who put Adams’ name forward, Thompson said she was “already in the system” since she previously worked in the Northern District.

“I was asked if I know her and I said, ‘Yes, she’s a good person’,” the Mississippi Democrat said.

Northern District of Mississippi Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis Ivy has also been mentioned as a candidate for the position. Thompson met with Ivy in Washington last July, but the House member said at the time they didn’t discuss the U.S. Attorney post.

Thompson said Friday that he “didn’t know that [Ivy] was in the running.”

The Mississippi Democrat said he hopes the Obama administration will make a nomination soon.

“It’s taking an awfully long time,” Thompson said. “One of the situations you run into is: how long can a person put their career on hold?”

Obama’s pick to lead the Oxford-based U.S. Attorney’s office would succeed Jim M. Greenlee, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney Jan. 31.

Just as some Justice Department offices in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast finally are back in business after an earlier one-two punch of winter storms had laid them low earlier in the week, another storm that is bringing several inches of snow to the South closed U.S. Attorney’s offices in five districts today.

According to DOJ spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz, the shuttered offices are the:

• Southern District of Mississippi.
• Southern District of Alabama (Mobile office).
• Middle District of Alabama.
• Western District of Louisiana (Shreveport office).
• Eastern District of Texas (Plano, Sherman and Texarkana offices).

The branch offices for Northern District of Texas in Dallas and Fort Worth opened late today. The Eastern District of Texas’s branch offices in Tyler and Lufkin also had late openings today.

Many employees at shuttered offices are still able to work remotely, using communications technology such as BlackBerries, cell phones and laptop computers, DOJ officials have said.

Most of this week, many U.S. Attorney’s offices across the East Coast were closed because of two crippling blizzards that dumped more than a foot of snow. DOJ headquarters in Washington also had limited operations.

Today, all of the U.S. Attorney’s offices that were closed this week have been reopened and the DOJ operations in Washington are back to normal, according to DOJ officials.

Donald R. Burkhalter on Thursday was named the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, The Associated Press reported. Burkhalter has been working as the office’s Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.

The head position opened up after Stan Harris, the district’s acting U.S. Attorney, on Wednesday resigned in preparation for his deployment to Iraq with the 155th Brigade Combat Team of the Mississippi Army National Guard. He had headed the office since January.

Burkhalter worked at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., for more than 10 years before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office more than 20 years ago, The AP reported.

President Obama has yet to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the district. The last Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney in Southern Mississippi was Dunn Lampton. Lampton was named to the office in 2001, a position he held until earlier this year.

The acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi will trade his suit and tie for military fatigues next week, The Associated Press reported today.

Stan Harris will be deployed Thursday to Iraq with the 155th Brigade Combat Team, Mississippi Army National Guard, according to The AP. About 3,000 members of the brigade have been in Iraq since June and are slated to come back to Mississippi in April, the news wire said.

Harris will step down from his post Wednesday after almost nine months as the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Mississippi, according to The AP. Harris succeeded Dunn Lampton, who was appointed in 2001 by President Bush.  President Obama has yet to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District.