Over the holiday week, five U.S. Attorneys were sworn in. They are:

• James L. Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin): The former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin was sworn in this morning. He was confirmed Dec. 24. Santelle replaces Bush appointee Steven Biskupic. Biskupic was appointed U.S. Attorney 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 2009 to join the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich as a litigator.

• Beth Phillips (Western District of Missouri): The former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri was sworn in Dec. 31. She was confirmed Dec. 24. Phillips replaces Bush appointee John Wood. Wood headed the office from 2007 to 2009 before resigning in February to join the D.C. office of a leading Wall Street law firm as a partner.

• Mike Cotter (District of Montana): The private practice attorney was sworn in Dec. 30. He was confirmed Dec. 24. Cotter replaces controversial Bush appointee William Mercer, who had held the post since 2001. Mercer wore two hats at DOJ, serving as U.S. Attorney and as Acting Associate Attorney General from September 2006 to June 2007. At DOJ headquarters, he assisted in the politicized firings of other U.S. Attorneys, congressional investigators found. A federal judge and leading Democrats in Montana had called for his resignation.

• Sanford Coats (Western District of Oklahoma): The former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Oklahoma was sworn in Dec. 30. He was confirmed Dec. 24. Coats replaces John C. Richter, who was named to head the office on an interim basis in 2005 and confirmed by the Senate in 2006. Richter resigned in August to teach law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

• Barbara McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan): The former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan was sworn in today. She was confirmed Dec. 24. McQuade replaces Stephen J. Murphy who became U.S. Attorney in 2006. In 2008 he became a federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan.

In a wrap-up session just before leaving town until next year,  the Senate today confirmed seven U.S. Attorneys by voice vote.

They are:

Richard Callahan (Gov)

– Richard Callahan (Eastern District of Missouri): The state circuit judge in Missouri succeeds Catherine L. Hanaway, who resigned earlier this year. He was nominated for the post in October. Read more about Callahan here.

– Sanford Coats (Western District of Oklahoma): Coats, who been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the western Oklahoma office, succeeds John Richter, who stepped down in August. Coats was nominated on Sept. 30. Read more about Coats here.

– Michael Cotter (Montana): The Helena, Mont., lawyer replaces Bill Mercer, who is a holdover from the George W. Bush administration. Obama nominated Cotter for U.S. Attorney on Sept. 25, after the live-in girlfriend of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) withdrew from consideration. As the state’s senior Democratic senator, Baucus had recommended three candidates to the White House. Read more about Cotter here.

– Christopher Crofts (Wyoming): The counsel to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) replaces Bush holdover Kelly Rankin. He was nominated on Nov. 30. Read more about Crofts here.

Barbara L. McQuade (ICLE)

– Barbara McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan): The Eastern District of Michigan Assistant U.S. Attorney succeeds Stephen J. Murphy, who resigned in 2008. She was nominated on Nov. 30. Read more about her here.

James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal)

– James Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin): Santelle, who has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District office, succeeds Steven Biskupic, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in January. Obama tapped Santelle for the post on Nov. 30. Read more about Santelle here.

– Mary Elizabeth Phillips (Western District of Missouri): Phillips, who was nominated Sept. 30, succeeds John Wood, who resigned in February. Read more about Phillips here.

The Senate has now confirmed 31 U.S. Attorneys. The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to schedule votes votes for another 10 would-be U.S. Attorneys, including the nominees Obama tapped today and last Tuesday. One of Obama’s nominees, Stephanie Villafuerte of Colorado, withdrew from consideration two weeks ago.

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed four U.S. Attorney nominees this morning by voice vote.

They are:

Barbara L. McQuade (ICLE)

-Barbara McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan): The Eastern District of Michigan Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed Stephen J. Murphy, who resigned in 2008. She was nominated on Nov. 30. Read more about her here.

-Christopher Crofts (Wyoming): The counsel to Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) would replace Bush holdover Kelly Rankin. He was nominated on Nov. 30. Read more about Crofts here.

James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal)

-James Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin): The Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed Steven Biskupic, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in January. President Barack Obama tapped Santelle for the post on Nov. 30. Read more about Santelle here.

-Michael Cotter (Montana): The Helena, Mont., lawyer would replace Bill Mercer, who is a holdover from the George W. Bush administration. Obama nominated Cotter for U.S. Attorney on Sept. 25, after the live-in girlfriend of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) withdrew from consideration. As the state’s senior Democratic senator, Baucus had recommended candidates to the White House. Read more about the nominee here.

The panel has now approved 31 U.S. Attorney nominees, including the 24 U.S. Attorneys who have won Senate confirmation thus far. The committee has yet to schedule votes for another two would-be U.S. Attorneys.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote Thursday on two more U.S. Attorney nominees, according to the panel’s Web site.

James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal)

They are:

-James Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin): The Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney would succeed Steven Biskupic, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in January. President Barack Obama tapped Santelle for the post on Nov. 30. Read more about Santelle here.

-Michael Cotter (Montana): The Helena, Mont., lawyer would replace Bill Mercer, who is a holdover from the George W. Bush administration. Obama nominated Cotter for U.S. Attorney on Sept. 25, after the live-in girlfriend of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) withdrew from consideration. As the state’s senior Democratic senator, Baucus had recommended candidates to the White House. Read  more about the nominee here.

The committee will also consider U.S. Attorney nominees Barbara McQuade for the Eastern District of Michigan and Christopher Crofts for Wyoming at its Thursday meeting.

The panel has approved 27 U.S. Attorney nominees, including the 24 U.S. Attorneys who have won Senate confirmation thus far. The committee has yet to schedule votes for another three would-be U.S. Attorneys.

James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal).

James L. Santelle (Marquette University, The University of Chicago Law School) is nominated to replace Steven Biskupic as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Biskupic served from 2002 to January 2009, when he resigned to join the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich as a litigator.

Santelle’s vitals:

• Born in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1958.
• Has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the district since June 1985. Simultaneously served as chief of the office’s civil division from October 1993 to January 1999, was interim U.S. Attorney from April 2001 to April 2002, and Executive Assistant United States Attorney from May 2002 to November 2003 and has been senior litigation counsel since April 2001.
• Served as rule of law coordinator, justice attache and resident legal adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
• Was the principal deputy director at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys at Justice Department headquarters from January 1999 to April 2001.
• Clerked for the Hon. Robert W. Warren in the district from June 1983 to June 1985.
• Was a summer law clerk for Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in New York in 1982.
• Worked as a law clerk for Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago in the summer of 1981 and from the fall of 1982 to spring 1983.
• Interned on the White House domestic policy staff in the summer of 1980.
• Was a summer intern for Rep. Clement J. Zablocki (D-Wis.) in 1977 and 1978.
• Has tried approximately 20 criminal cases to jury verdict and approximately 10 civil cases to court judgment. Served as sole counsel on the great majority of these cases.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

UPDATE: On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Santelle reported assets of $858,00 (mostly from his personal residence valued at $400,000). However, Santelle has liabilities of $184,000 in the form of secured notes payable to banks and $20,000 in accounts and bills due. In total, Santelle has liabilities of $204,000, resulting in a net worth of $858,000.

On his Office of Government Ethics disclosure he reported receiving $55,205 from the revocable trust of James N. Santelle.

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.

Federal judge J.P. Stadtmueller of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals certainly isn’t trying to make friends at the Eastern District of Wisconsin’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. Acting United States Attorney Michelle Jacobs and Assistant United States Attorney Gordon Giampietro have filed a writ of mandamus to force the judge to recuse himself from a gun case, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Steven Biskupic (Federalist Society)

This marks the second writ of mandamus filed against a Wisconsin judge in five years; it’s also the second one filed against Stadtmueller.  The prosecutors are arguing that Stadtmueller tried to coerce them into cutting a deal with the defendant, while Stadtmueller is accusing the prosecutors of “judge-shopping.”  According to the court filings, Stadtmueller summoned then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic and head of the public defender’s office Daniel Stiller to his chambers to discuss the case, though neither one was directly involved in the case.  Stadtmueller lamented that ”there was a lot of blame to go around” and told them that the case was “an embarrassment to the system of justice.”  He suggested that the case be settled short of trial, or he would make a decision that satisfied neither party, the filings say.

Stadtmueller has a long history with the office he’s tussling with. He was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin from 1981-1987 under President Ronald Reagan.  

Last December, Stadtmueller caused a huge fuss over a routine fraud case, questioning the exact dollar amount of restitution to be paid, even though both parties had agreed to it.  The court, on its own initiative, told Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Watzka and Richard Frohling that it wanted United Parcel Service’s Chief Financial Officer to come before the court three days before Christmas to verify the amount of money the company had lost due to the crimes of the defendant Katherine Siewert.  When the U.S. Attorneys Office said no go, Stadtmueller took matters into his own hands and called up a security supervisor for UPS to verify the restitution.  You can read the Sentinel’s full report here.

In another case, Stadtmueller gave millionaire trucking magnate and Indian casino backer Dennis Troha no fine and six months probation after he was convicted of breaking campaign finance laws.  He cited the government’s wasteful spending on the U.S.-Mexican border fence and said:

There is no reason to provide funds to the government, and I respectfully decline to do so.