Bill O’Reilly, the face of Fox News, on Thursday called Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s Attorney General nominee, “a hero” who he’ll be happy to see confirmed.
The unexpected praise is a direct result of Lynch’s role as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
That job may be relatively junior for someone picked to head the Justice Department. But it means prosecutions and public relations coups like Thursday’s guilty plea by Andrew Goodman, a convicted molester who pleaded to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines.
Goodman, 30, is a uniquely repellent defendant, a pony-tailed pedophile who, representing himself, claimed that he was married under Orthodox Jewish law to then-15-year-old boy he raped.
In 2012, a state judge sentenced Goodman to only two years in prison, including time-served, outraging the victim’s family and local prosecutors.
But Lynch’s office stepped in after Goodman served his short sentence, hitting him with federal charges for taking the minor to Atlantic City, where Goodman raped him before taking him to a Kid Rock concert.
The prosecution has won effusive praise from O’Reilly. His continued backing should help Lynch as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to consider her nomination late next week. Lynch was on Capitol Hill Thursday meeting with senators.
Lynch’s office this week also charged two Yemeni nationals on terrorism charges, and won a guilty plea from a Daniel Dennenberg, a Nashua County Democrat who admitted stealing $2.3 million form his former law firm.
“If Senate Republicans examine her record on the merits, we are confident they will reach the same conclusion as Bill O’Reilly: that she is a straight shooter who always seeks to do the right thing, without regard for politics,” an Obama administration official said Thursday.
With John Marzulli
