Washington State’s senior U.S. Senator Patty Murray has nominated Spokane attorney Michael C. Ormsby for appointment by the President to be the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.  The nomination must first be confirmed by the US Senate.

Since Idaho will have its own United States Attorney for the District of Idaho appointed and confirmed, why should we in Idaho be concerned about Ormsby’s appointment in eastern Washington?

As shown in these links to meeting minutes, Michael Ormsby has been the bond attorney for the City of Coeur d’Alene and for the city’s urban renewal agency, the Lake City Development Corporation.    Ormsby is the Administrative Partner with K&L Gates, LLP, in Spokane/Coeur d’Alene.

If Ormsby is confirmed as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, he could easily become aware of details of federal investigations in Coeur d’Alene that spill over into eastern Washington.   If those happened to be public corruption investigations, his previous relationship with the City and our urban renewal agency could be a complication. 

For several years now independent journalists, former public officials, and citizens in Spokane have been investigating and reporting on Spokane’s River Park Square fiasco engineered by the Cowles Co. with the tacit cooperation of its own newspaper, The Spokesman-Review.  A good historical account of the entire chain of events is available here.  It is the scandal that honest and caring citizens will not allow to die, perhaps because Jo Ellen Savage did die.

The objection to Ormsby’s nomination has been sent in a five-page letter to President Obama as well as to Senators Reid and Leahy.   The letter outlines Ormsby’s involvement in River Park Square.  It was signed by former Spokane Mayor John Talbot, former Spokane Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, former Pend Oreille County Sheriff Tony Bamonte, and journalist Tim Connor.   The letter clearly raises very valid concerns about Michael Ormsby’s suitability to serve as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.  

The United States Attorney in each of the 93 districts is a political appointee.  That does not mean the standards of professional conduct can or should be lowered.  As the chief federal prosecutor in the district, the US Attorney exercises considerable discretion in which criminal cases will be charged and prosecuted.  Federal agents who bring cases to the office and the district’s citizens are entitled to a  US Attorney whose loyalty, integrity, discretion, morals, and character are above reproach.   Likewise, federal agents and citizens in contiguous districts need to be assured that sensitive investigative information on cases in their district will be protected from political compromise.

Surely the senior Senator from Washington state can come up with a better choice than Michael C. Ormsby to be the US Attorney in the Eastern District of Washington.