Obama's Attorney General Pick Is Too Easy on Wall Street

By Jesse Byrnes, The Hill

14 March 15

merican Family Voices, a left-leaning advocacy group, is opposing the nomination of Loretta Lynch as attorney general, saying that she's not tough enough on Wall Street.

The group is citing Lynch's role as a federal prosecutor in a 2012 money laundering case involving Mexican and Columbian drug cartels. British bank HSBC paid $1.9 billion in fines over the charges but its top executives didn't see jail time.

“Wall Street bankers have already proven that they will continue to flout financial regulations because they know that the [Department of Justice] will not pursue charges. It’s time to prosecute bankers for criminal activity, period," Mike Lux, president of the group, said in a statement Friday.

The Senate is expected to take up the nomination of President Obama's nominee to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder next week. Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has unanimous support among Democrats and from four Republicans.

A number of Republicans have voiced concerns over Lynch because of her defense of Obama's immigration actions. But for many on the left her handling of financial fraud cases is taking center stage and follows their concerns that Holder also was not tough enough on the issue.

Some Republicans have also raised concerns over Lynch's handling of the HSBC case.

"Why do you believe that concluding an investigation into $881 million in money laundering without a single indictment or fine of an individual is a satisfactory result?” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Lynch after her confirmation hearing last month.

Lynch defended her actions of securing "perhaps the most stringent [terms] ever imposed on a financial institution," noting that "virtually all of the senior executives who oversaw HSBC's flawed compliance programs were replaced."

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) last month called the HSBC settlement a "slap on the wrist."

American Family Voices is closely aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and previously opposed the nomination of Larry Summers as Federal Reserve chairman. Obama eventually appointed Janet Yellen to fill the position.