Harkin prepares to make U.S. Attorney recommendations

Sen. Tom Harkin

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin is hopeful that he will present the Obama administration with recommendations for Iowa’s two U.S. attorney posts in the next few weeks. As the federal government’s top prosecutors in the state, both positions are central to Iowa law enforcement and both are politically sensitive.

Harkin said he is meeting with potential candidates but did not name any names.

“We are grateful to have a number of highly qualified individuals interested in each of the U.S. attorney positions,” Harkin said in an e-mail to the Iowa Independent Tuesday. “We’re equally grateful to have a high level of anticipatory interest in our process, which we hope will lead to recommendations … during the coming weeks.”

A spokesperson in Harkin’s office said  there are currently no “finalists” for either the Northern District position, now held by Matt Dummermuth, or the Southern District office, now occupied by Matt Whitaker.

By tradition, the senior senator of the president’s party nominates candidates from among whom the White House chooses. While each new incoming administration gets the prosecutors they want, the White House is expected not to interfere with their work as Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and the administration of President George W. Bush did in New Mexico, southern California and several other well-publicized cases.

Both of the Bush-appointed U.S. attorneys have roots in politics as well as the law. Neither has figured in the national U.S. attorneys scandal. While Whitaker and Dummermuth both have a wide array of drug, gun and sexual predator convictions under their belts, they are arguably best known for their response to immigration raids.

In the Southern District, Harkin and the Obama White House will replace Matt Whitaker, a 2002 Republican candidate for state treasurer, who has served since June 2004. An attorney at the Finley Alt Smith firm in Des Moines prior to his appointment, Whitaker was nominated by Bush following a recommendation by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. He had worked for the law firm of Briggs & Morgan in the Twin Cities and as corporate counsel for the national SUPERVALU grocery company.

Whitaker was one of six U.S. attorneys who took charge of investigation and prosecution in the aftermath of Operation Wagon Train, a massive December 2006 immigration raid that netted arrests of 1,297 meatpacking plant workers in six states. Swift & Company, which was at that time one of Marshalltown’s largest employers, was targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the raid.

U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker, earned U.S. Sente confirmation in June 2004. His tenure followed Stephen Patrick O'Meara (2003-2004), Steven M. Colloton (2001-2003), Inga Bumbary-Langston (2001) and Don C. Nickerson (1993-2001).

The days that followed were ones of confusion for family members, immigration advocates and attorneys. The federal government, indicating it was acting on the wishes of local law enforcement at the locations of the temporary detention facilities, would not publicly release the whereabouts of those detained.

Whitaker was criticized for alleged heartlessness in the days following the raid because he dismissed reports of children being separated from their parents as exaggerated stories told for political gain.

Seven days later, on Dec. 19,  a federal grand jury in Des Moines handed down indictments of 23 undocumented workers on immigration and identity-theft charges. It was Whitaker who announced that the 23 charged came from a pool of 664 workers federal authorities suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Whitaker also announced that 89 people had been removed from Marshalltown on the day of the raid, a number “lower than expected.” Two low-level members of plant management were charged and ultimately convicted on immigration-related charges. One received a year in prison and the other was sentenced to probation.

While speaking with the Associated Press about his belief that the Obama administration will replace him as U.S. attorney, Whitaker defended his actions following the much-criticized raid, noting that hourly wages in Marshalltown increased by $2 as the source of exploitable undocumented workers dried up. While the media remained busy doing periodic impact reports from Marshalltown and the five other sites included in the 2006 raids, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly secured the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo, reportedly for training exercises.

Those facilities came in handy for Matt Dummermuth, the interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District, who had jurisdiction when 389 workers at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville — nearly a third of the workforce — were detained on May 12, 2008, by federal authorities. All were initially taken to the secured Waterloo facility, although a few women were transported to a county jail.

U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth

Dummermuth, who worked as a previous campaign staffer for the successful Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign and for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, seemed to have learned from the Marshalltown public relations fiasco. He launched a much more transparent public relations campaign, featuring joint press conferences with immigration officials and a steady stream of press releases.

His office let reporters know that approximately 40 Postville residents were released, with ankle tracking devices, because they had health concerns and/or small children. Even a forgetful public could remember the charges of “inhumane treatment” associated with the Swift detentions, and Dummermuth’s gesture insured that the Postville raid attracted much less criticism.

Within two weeks, more than three-quarters of all those detained had been quickly and efficiently convicted of criminal wrongdoing, primarily on identity theft-related charges. Although critics strongly voiced their opposition to the temporary courtroom facilities at the fairgrounds and immigration attorneys chafed at less-than-adequate access to clients, Dummermuth was credited with quick completion of an unprecedented undertaking.

Because of Dummermuth and his wife Rebecca’s direct connections to the Bush administration — she was a former White House associate director for legal affairs in the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives – his appointment was repeatedly scrutinized at the time of the U.S. attorney scandals. To his and his staff’s credit, Dummermuth was not accused of any perceived impropriety.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, for whom Dummermuth once interned, first recommended Dummermuth, a native of Elgin, to replace the retiring Chuck Larson Sr. in 2006. Nearly two years later — and nearly a year after Dummermuth had been sworn into office — President George W. Bush sent the official nomination to the U.S. Senate. Confirmation hearings were never held because the necessary paperwork from the Iowa delegation was not received.