By Che Ambe
Her splash on the world stage was unprecedented; her name instantly became one of the highest searched words on google. She will for history be remembered as the woman who drove an arrow into the heart of soccer’s powerful governing body leaving the exclusively boys club shivering like orphaned birds in the aftermath of a hurricane. The French paper Le Figaro described her as, “the woman who’s rocking FIFA”. For sure, the no nonsense woman is presently rocking FIFA, with such force that the bolts are giving way.
She is 58-year-old Loretta Lynch, U.S 83rd Attorney General. Her nomination broke records as the longest Attorney General delayed confirmations in U.S history (119 days). Stifled by the American political system where the incumbent president’s nominees are opportunities for Republicans to outsmart each other with anti-Obama rhetoric. This delay did not take her eye off the FIFA ball that she has been watching/investigating for years.
She is not new to bursting crime rings. As U.S attorney General for the Eastern District in New York (1999-2001), which embodies Brooklyn, Queens, Staten and Long Islands, she scored several court victories. She thwarted an Al Qaida plot to attack New York’s Subways, convicted Canadian Marijuana king pin, who had become the highest marijuana supplier in the state. She equally ended the career of Republican Congress man Michael Grimm, after he finally pleaded guilty of tax evasion. She equally investigated mortgage frauds and several big banks that admitted rigging markets in millions of dollars.
Even in those landmark victories, she has never been interested in the headlines and often shied away from news conferences about the cases. As Brooklyn’s prosecutor in the 90s, she presided over the 1997 “brown stick” beating of a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima in a bathroom. Opening statements were given by a junior member of the trial team. Her news conference on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, indicting FIFA officials was uncharacteristic of the soft-spoken Lynch, but epic not only for her, but the soccer world. The U.K Guardian Newspaper, described that day as “The ugliest day in the history of the beautiful game”. Yes pretty ugly as she emphatically stated that FIFA officials “engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide.” As the U.S top law enforcement officer she said the crimes committed using U.S banks, cannot be left unprosecuted. Her earthquake announcement’s aftershocks are reverberating worldwide, and will likely reshape this predominantly male fiefdom. The panic is especially rife within the ranks of the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments – Russia and Qatar, whose selection was and still shrouded in controversy.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, Ms. Lynch served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, having been appointed to that office by President Obama in 2010. She had previously led that office as United States Attorney from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
Daughter of a North Carolina Baptist Minister and Librarian, Ms. Lynch received her A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College in 1981. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was an advisor to the first year moot court competition and a member of the Legal Aid Bureau and Harvard Black Law Students Association.
Before returning to the United States Attorney’s Office in 2010, Ms. Lynch was a partner in the New York office of Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. Ms. Lynch also served as Special Counsel to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and conducted a special investigation into allegations of witness tampering and false testimony at the tribunal.
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