Ron Machen (Wilmer Hale)

Ron Machen, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, is nearing the finish line.

Two people familiar the situation tell Main Justice that the former federal prosecutor had his interview at the Justice Department earlier this week. If all went well, he is virtually guaranteed the nomination for the U.S. Attorney post in the District of Columbia. (For an inside look at the interview process, click here.)

Machen declined to comment.

Machen worked in the Fraud and Public Corruption and Homicide sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from 1997 to 2001. At Wilmer, he has represented a slew of high-profile clients, including Boeing Co., CitiGroup Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

In August, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton submitted a slate of three names to the White House. Nixon Peabody partner Anjali Chaturvedi and Fried Frank partner Michael Bromwich are also among the finalists, though news reports pegged Machen as the early favorite.

Eric Holder (DOJ)

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced nine appointees to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.

In August, Holder tapped Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones to chair the committee, an influential policy-making and advisory body that serves as the voice of the U.S. Attorneys at Main Justice.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, of Illinois’ Northern District, served as interim chairman before Jones was confirmed. Chicago’s top prosecutor, a Republican appointee who has been recommended for a second tour of duty, will remain on the committee.

The nine new members are listed below. Click on their names for a summary of their Senate questionnaires.

• Preet Bharara, of the Southern District of New York
• Dennis Burke, of Arizona
• Jenny Durkan, of the Western District of Washington
• Paul Fishman, of New Jersey
• Neil MacBride, of the Eastern District of Virginia
• Peter Neronha, of Rhode Island
• Joyce Vance, of the Northern District of Alabama
• Channing Phillips, acting U.S attorney in the District of Columbia
• John Davis, chief of the criminal division of the federal prosecutors’ office in Alexandria, will represent the views of Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

They will each serve two-year terms.

The Senate so far has confirmed 18 of 93 U.S. Attorneys. One nominee is waiting for approval by the full Senate, and 11 more await a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Holder, in a statement, said he would rely heavily on the the AGAC as the department works to curb violent crime and gang violence, promote civil rights, police the marketplace and protect national security.

The AGAC’s other members, who were appointed during the Bush administration, include U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, of  Middle District of Alabama; Rod Rosenstein, of Maryland; Brett Tolman, of Utah; and Gretchen Witt, the civil chief in the District of New Hampshire.

Regulations require only that the committee have an “appropriate” number of members.

The District of Columbia is getting three new Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the Blog of the Legal Times reported today.

Andrew Finkelman, 29, will join the District’s office in the Appellate Division, Stephen Rickard, 29, the Misdemeanor Unit of the General Crimes Section, and Carl “Zeke” Ross, 31, joins the Civil Division.

Finkelman, with his JD from the University of Iowa, served on the Iowa Law Review, and holds a Master’s Degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Government, according to a news release from the District’s acting U.S. Attorney, Channing Phillips. Rickard is a 2006 magna cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law, and Ross graduated in 2003 from the William and Mary School of Law, where he was an associate articles editor of the William & Mary Law Review.

Most recently, Finkelman served as a law clerk to the senior judges of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; Rickard was a law clerk to the Juan R. Torruella of U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; and Ross was an associate at Arnold & Porter.

After we broke the news earlier this week of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s recommendations for U.S. Attorney — she slipped three names to White House in late August — her office issued this news release Wednesday:

In response to speculation about the name of the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the Office of Eleanor Holmes Norton today said that several weeks ago the Congresswoman gave her recommendation to the President, and she understands that the President has made his choice. Norton interviewed several candidates before making her recommendation.  “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is a presidential position, and the choice and the nomination will be his,” Norton said.

Ron Machen (Wilmer Hale)

Barack Obama’s choice — or at least the front-runner, according to The Washington Post and The Washington Examiner — is Ron Machen, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and a former federal prosecutor in the District. We’ve written about his candidacy here and here.

According to The Post, Machen was Norton’s first choice. (She also recommended Anjali Chaturvedi, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, and Michael Bromwich, a partner Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.) Sources told the newspaper that Machen is being vetted and will likely be nominated if he passes his background check.

The White House said no decision has been made.

Anjali Chaturvedi (Nixon Peabody)

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has recommended three former federal prosecutors – Anjali Chaturvedi, Michael Bromwich and Ron Machen – for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, according to various people familiar with the process.

We previously reported here that the three lawyers interviewed with Norton, after her 17-member commission narrowed the field of U.S. Attorney applicants. Norton sent her recommendations to the White House in late August, according to one person. The process has been airtight, so bear with us.

Michael Bromwich (PBS.org)

Two people told us that Chaturvedi, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP who specializes in government investigations and complex civil and criminal matters, made the cut. She has a combined 12 years experience as an Assistant U.S. Attorney on both the East and West coasts. She was chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and deputy chief of the Felony Trial Section in the D.C. office.

Ron Machen (Wilmer Hale)

Another person familiar with the matter indicated that Bromwich was on the list. A former Justice Department inspector general, Bromwich now heads the internal investigations, compliance and monitoring practice group at at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Bromwich was an AUSA in the Southern District of New York in the 1980s and later served as associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra.

And three people told us Norton recommended Machen, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.  Machen worked in the Fraud and Public Corruption and Homicide sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from 1997 to 2001. At Wilmer, he has represented a slew of high-profile clients, including Boeing Co., CitiGroup Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Absent from the list, apparently, is Channing Phillips, a veteran prosecutor and acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. We could not confirm whether Phillips interviewed with Norton in August, but he enjoys strong support within the office.

Phillips joined the office in 1994 as a line prosecutor. In 2004, he was tapped as principal deputy assistant attorney general, the office’s No. 2. Phillips was also the office’s chief spokesman. He was named acting U.S. attorney in May, after Jeffrey Taylor stepped down for a position at Ernst & Young.

Norton’s recommendations cap the local phase of the selection process, which began in April. Phillips, Chaturvedi and Bromwich declined to comment. Machen could not be reached.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is the largest in the country, with more than 350 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and more than 350 support staff. The office prosecutes federal and local crimes.