In her short time as attorney general, Loretta Lynch has won international renown for taking on corruption inside Fifa while quietly setting about work on American challenges such as policing reform.
On Wednesday, Barack Obama said he liked what he saw.
“It’s funny that we are installing Loretta today,” Obama said at a ceremonial swearing-in for the attorney general at the Warner Theater in Washington. “It’s not like she was waiting around for an embossed invitation. She hit the ground running from day one. She’s already made her mark here at home and abroad because of her laser focus on the core mission of the justice department: the protection of the American people.”
Lynch was officially sworn in 27 April, after an historic six-month delay imposed on her nomination by Republican opponents of the president in Congress.
Just one month into the job, Lynch made a splash with arrests at a Zurich hotel and a news conference to announce a widespread investigation of corruption inside Fifa, soccer’s world governing body. The investigation, which precipitated the resignation of longtime Fifa president Sepp Blatter, is ongoing.
“To say that my heart is full is such an understatement,” Lynch said onstage Wednesday. Alluding to the fight over her nomination, she thanked colleagues who had “worked so hard on my behalf on the road to my confirmation”.
“You harnessed the spirit of public service, the spirit of civic contribution as well as the spirit of sisterhood to make this dream come to fruition,” she said, to cheers and applause.
Sitting onstage with Lynch were husband Stephen Hargrove and parents Lorenzo and Lorine Lynch. Reverend Clarence Newsome, president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and a family friend, gave the invocation. A group of students from Bedford Academy high school in Brooklyn, where Lynch was formerly US attorney for the eastern district of New York, led the pledge of allegiance. A choir sang God Bless America.
Lynch dedicated the day to her father, a minister who took her as a youth to protests of racial segregation in her native North Carolina, and to her mother, a librarian.
“A dedicated young minister who carried me on his shoulders to watch those not much older than I make history, and a courageous young teacher who refused to let Jim Crow or anyone define her,” Lynch said. “Their commitment to justice and public service has been the inspiration for my life’s work, and it is why I dedicate this day, this event, and this achievement to them.”
In a second initiation Wednesday, Lynch joined Twitter, becoming the first sitting attorney general to use the social media service. She tweeted that she would be sworn in on the bible of Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist. “Honored to be using Frederick Douglass’ Bible today,” she wrote. “His life is an inspiration to me.”
