The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on Deputy Attorney General nominee James Cole on June 15, less than a month after he was nominated, Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Tuesday.
James Cole, a former public corruption prosecutor who in the 1990s investigated House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Bryan Cave).
Cole, a longtime friend of Attorney General Eric Holder, was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 24. Republicans are expected to raise issues with his work as a government-imposed monitor at insurance giant AIG.
In responses on his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, Cole said in notes for a speech that he was “not received as a member of the family” when he began his work as a monitor at AIG in 2005.
“As I began to talk to people, some were quite anxious to have me do my review, but many didn’t want me to interfere with the ‘entrepreneurial culture’ at AIG,” wrote Cole.
In his answers on the questionnaire, Cole wrote that he represented a senior Enron officer during government investigations into CEO Kenneth Lay. He also wrote that from 2003 to 2007, he represented Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the Minister of the Interior of Saudi Arabia, in litigation brought by victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a case which was dismissed. Cole said that he has performed no lobbying activities.
A Justice Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the scheduled hearing.
UPDATED:
In the midst of preparations for the hearing next week, Cole visited the Justice Department on Tuesday afternoon. Cole was headed to Capitol Hill for meetings with senators and is scheduled to be back on the Hill Wednesday.
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