The Senate confirmed three U.S. Attorneys last night by unanimous consent.

They are:

Jenny Durkan (Law Offices of Jenny A. Durkan)

-Jenny Durkan (Western District of Washington): The Seattle lawyer was nominated June 4. She will replace Jeffrey C. Sullivan, who has been the interim U.S. Attorney since John McKay was forced out in the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. Read more about Durkan here.

Deborah Gilg (Gilg, Kruger & Troia)

-Florence Nakakuni (Hawaii): The Hawaii Assistant U.S. Attorney was nominated July 14. She will succeed Bush holdover Edward Kubo Jr., who has been U.S. Attorney since 2001. Read more about Nakakuni here.

-Deborah Gilg (Nebraska): The Omaha lawyer was nominated July 31. She will replace Bush holdover Joe Stecher, who has been U.S. Attorney since 2007. Read more about Gilg here.

The Senate has now confirmed 14 U.S. Attorneys who have been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Paul Fishman for New Jersey is the only nominee who has been endorsed by the panel, but has not been considered by the full Senate yet. Fishman and Durkan waited more than three months before the Senate Judiciary Committee considered them. Read our previous report about the delays on them here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to consider eight U.S. Attorney nominees, including Timothy Heaphy for the Western District of Virginia who will go before the panel tomorrow.

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed five Justice Department nominees today by unanimous consent.

They are:

Ignacia Moreno

Jenny Durkan (Law Offices of Jenny A. Durkan)

-Ignacia Moreno (Environment and Natural Resources Division Assistant Attorney General): The General Electric Co. counsel was nominated June 8. She would succeed Ronald Tenpas, who resigned in January. Read more about the nominee here.

-Jenny Durkan (Western District of Washington U.S. Attorney): The Seattle lawyer was nominated June 4. She would replace Jeffrey C. Sullivan, who has been the interim U.S. Attorney since John McKay was forced out in the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. Read more about the nominee here.

Paul Fishman (Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman)

-Paul Fishman (New Jersey U.S. Attorney): The New York lawyer was nominated June 4. He would replace Ralph Marra, who became acting U.S. Attorney after Chris Christie resigned in December 2008 to run for New Jersey governor. Read more about Fishman here.

-Florence Nakakuni (Hawaii U.S. Attorney): The Hawaii Assistant U.S. Attorney was nominated July 14. She would replace Bush holdover Edward H. Kubo Jr., who has been U.S. Attorney since 2001. Read more about Nakakuni here.

Deborah Gilg (Gilg, Kruger & Troia)

-Deborah Gilg (Nebraska U.S. Attorney): The Omaha lawyer was nominated July 31. She would replace Bush holdover Joe Stecher, who has been U.S. Attorney since 2007. Read more about the nominee here.

Durkan and Fishman were held over from last week at the request of Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) Read our report here.

The panel has now endorsed a total of 15 U.S. Attorney nominees. The Senate has confirmed 11 U.S. Attorneys that have been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel has yet to consider eight U.S. Attorney nominees.

Moreno joins four Assistant Attorney General nominees, who were reported out of committee and are waiting for votes in the full Senate. Dawn Johnsen (Office of Legal Counsel), Thomas Perez (Civil Rights Division), Christopher Schroeder (Office of Legal Policy) and Mary L. Smith (Tax Division) were endorsed by the panel months ago. Read our report on the stalled nominees here. The panel still has to consider one more Assistant Attorney General nominee, Laurie O. Robinson, who was nominated Sept. 14 to lead the Office of Justice Programs.

By now, it’s crystal clear that U.S. Attorney nominees Jenny Durkan (Western District of Washington) and Paul Fishman (New Jersey) have hit roadblocks. But Senate Republicans have declined to say what the problem is.

Paul Fishman (Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman)

Jenny Durkan (Law Offices of Jenny A. Durkan)

Durkan and Fishman were in the first batch of nominees announced by the White House in May. Their names were formally sent to the Senate on June 4. Since then, the Senate has confirmed 11 of President Obama’s U.S. Attorneys, while Durkan and Fishman are still sitting in the political refrigerator, starting to smell a little bad.

After a long delay, Durkan and Fishman were finally slated for a committee vote today. But the ranking member, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), invoked his right under the panel’s rules to delay their consideration for another week. “We try to move U.S. Attorneys as quickly as we can,” Sessions said at today’s business meeting. He gave no explanation for the delay, and Judiciary Republican staff wouldn’t explain it either, beyond indicating that more “review” of their records was needed.

Our guess: Durkan’s Democratic political ties are a problem, while Fishman is likely somehow caught up in the fierce battle over ex-New Jersey U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s (R) bid for governor. If confirmed, Fishman would take over a major public corruption investigation called Operation Bid Rig that has become an issue in the campaign. Two mayors charged in the case were close to Christie’s opponent, Gov. Jon Corzine (D). And acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, a Christie ally, is under investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility for remarks in a news conference about the Operation Bid Rig arrests that the Corzine camp complained were partisan.

Reluctantly, we also have to ask: Is the conservative Sessions possibly objecting to Durkan because of her sexual orientation? Sessions has a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy organization.

(UPDATE 4:46 p.m: Brian Benczkowski, Judiciary minority staff director, phoned us to say it was “complete bullshit” to suggest Sessions opposed Durkan because of her sexual orientation. Benczkowski said his words were on the record. He otherwise declined to discuss the reasons for the delays).

(UPDATE  6:45 p.m.: Sessions told Main Justice in a press gaggle that he decided to ask for another week to review Durkan and Fishman because Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had questions about the two nominees.

The ranking member called Fishman a “capable prosecutor” and said he doesn’t think the New Jersey governor’s race is holding up Fishman.

When asked whether Durkan’s sexual orientation or ties to Democrats was holding her up, Sessions said, “I…think that she will be up on the agenda next week and I expect she will get an up or down vote and move forward.”

Sessions said Republicans have asked before to postpone votes on nominees that come through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I wouldn’t read this as any attempt to block these nominations,” he said.)

Under Judiciary rules, Republicans can delay the nominees in committee only one week after they have first appeared on the agenda. Durkan and Fishman are back on the schedule next Thursday, along with U.S. Attorney nominees Deborah Gilg for Nebraska and Florence T. Nakakuni for Hawaii.

Durkan runs her own law firm in Seattle. Fishman is a partner at New York law firm Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman. Read more about them here.

Andrew Ramonas contributed to this report, which was updated at 4 p.m., 4:50 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on two U.S. Attorney nominees at a Sept. 17 meeting, the panel announced today.

They are:

Jenny Durkan (Law Offices of Jenny A. Durkin)

Paul Fishman (Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman)

-Jenny Durkan (Western District of Washington): The Seattle lawyer was nominated June 4. She would replace Jeffrey C. Sullivan, who has been the interim U.S. Attorney since John McKay was forced out in the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. Read more about the nominee here.

-Paul Fishman (New Jersey): The New York lawyer was nominated June 4. He would replace Ralph Marra, who became acting U.S. Attorney after Chris Christie resigned in December 2008 to run for New Jersey governor. Read more about Fishman here.

The panel reported four U.S. Attorney nominees out of committee today. The panel has endorsed a total of 11 U.S. Attorney nominees, including five who were confirmed by the full Senate last month.

After the committee votes on Durkan and Fishman, it will still have to consider five more U.S. Attorney nominees. The panel has not announced when it will consider the five U.S. Attorney nominees.