This report would ordinarily not be of much interest:
The White House and the Justice Department are vetting the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Mary Patrice Brown, for a federal judgeship, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Brown, a well-regarded career prosecutor, is expected to secure a nomination to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, assuming she clears her FBI background check and American Bar Association review, the people said.
But OPR is now handling, with no deliberate speed and no transparency, the internal investigation of the dismissal of the New Black Panther Party case. (Really, is it possible that after months of investigation, not a single member of the trial team has been interviewed by OPR?)
And do we think Brown is acting with full independence and a devil-may-care attitude as to where the facts may lead? Or is she, now that a lifetime appointment to the court is pending, treading ever so carefully and slooowly? Well, one thing is certain: if she is nominated for a federal courtship, senators can finally quiz her on what political interference by Obami appointees in the work of career prosecutors may have been uncovered and why the OPR is slow-walking its way through an internal investigation that remains hidden from all outside scrutiny. That should make for an interesting confirmation hearing.
