Richard Joseph Durbin is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois,a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party,Durbin has served as the Senate Democratic whip since 2005 and as the Senate majority whip since 2021. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee,and led the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination hearings.
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary,informally the Senate Judiciary Committee,is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ),consider executive and judicial nominations,as well as review pending legislation.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois is a federal district court covering approximately the southern third of the state of Illinois.
Merrick Brian Garland is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for conducting nearly all of the investigations of DOJ employees and programs. The office has several hundred employees,reporting to the Inspector General. Michael E. Horowitz has held the post since 2012.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 4,2008. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin sought a third term in office and faced minimal opposition from Republican Steve Sauerberg. As expected,Durbin overwhelmingly won re-election. On the same night,fellow Democratic Senator Barack Obama was elected President of the United States,defeating Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.
A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
The United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 5,2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin sought re-election to a second term in the United States Senate. Durbin defeated Republican challenger State Representative Jim Durkin in a landslide.
Pamela Susan Karlan is an American legal scholar who is the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She is on a leave of absence from Stanford Law School. A leading legal scholar on voting rights and constitutional law,she previously served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights in the DOJ's Civil Division from 2014 to 2015.
In December 2008,then-Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result,Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009. The federal investigation continued after his removal from office,and he was indicted on corruption charges in April of that year. The jury found Blagojevich guilty of one charge of making false statements with a mistrial being declared on the other 23 counts due to a hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberation. On June 27,2011,after a retrial,Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges,not guilty on one charge and the jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges. On December 7,2011,Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
John Phil Gilbert is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
Sharon Lynn Johnson Coleman is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She was formerly a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court,First District,3rd Division.
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under Presidents Bill Clinton (1999–2001),George W Bush (2001) and Obama (2010–2015). As a U.S. attorney,Lynch oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn,Queens,Staten Island,and Long Island.
The 2014 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 4,2014,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois,concurrently with the election of the Governor of Illinois,as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 8,2016,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois,concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 3,2020,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois,concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election,as well as other elections to the United States Senate,elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections and the Illinois Fair Tax. Incumbent Democratic Senator Dick Durbin,who had been Senate Minority Whip since 2015,won reelection to a fifth term in office,defeating Republican nominee Mark Curran.
Jeffrey Adam Rosen is an American lawyer who served as the acting United States attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021 and as the United States deputy attorney general from 2019 to 2020. Before joining the Department of Justice,he was a senior partner at the law firm Kirkland &Ellis and was the United States deputy secretary of transportation.
John R. Lausch Jr. is an American attorney who is currently serving as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Previously,he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1999 to 2010. During his time in the U.S. Attorney's Office,he served as a Deputy Chief in the Narcotics and Gangs Section for several years,where he helped lead the District's Anti-Gang and Project Safe Neighborhoods programs.
Ryan Kelley Goeb Patrick is an American attorney and former district judge who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas from 2018 to 2021. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2017 and assumed office early the following year.
Stephen Patrick McGlynn is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
