(Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel | Photo courtesy of Oregon Capital Insider)
Deschutes County District attorney John Hummel was named Tuesday as a finalist for nomination by President Joe Biden as the next U.S. Attorney for Oregon.
Hummel is one of only two nominees without a current or past connection to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is the only nominee from outside the Portland area.
The finalists’ names were released Tuesday morning to solicit public comment for the United States Department of Justice to solicit public comment on their possible nominations.
Also on the short list released Tuesday morning:
- Craig Gabriel, Assistant United States Attorney, deputy chief of the office’s criminal division and federal prosecutor since 2007
- Natalie Wight, Assistant United States Attorney. She was an unsuccessful candidate for Multnomah County District Attorney this year.
- Vivek Kothari, an attorney with Markowitz Herbold law firm in Portland. A former federal prosecutor in Atlanta, Vivek co-founded the Oregon Clemency Project last year and previously spent five years as a federal prosecutor in Atlanta.
- Rachel Sowray, Special Assistant United States Attorney and Fraud Prosecutor. She is an instructor at the University of Oregon Law School.
- Joseph Huynh, Assistant United States Attorney and instructor with University of Oregon Law School
- Vamshi Reddy, General Counsel, RISE Partnership, which advises on trusts, including SEIU Local 503 Labor-Management Trust Boards.
Hummel is known as one of the most progressive district attorneys in Oregon. He slammed a decision to send a U.S. Border Patrol tactical squad to forcibly break up an August 2020 demonstration seeking to stop an immigration enforcement action in the city.
“Federal troops stormed the buses in full tactical gear,” he wrote just after the incident. “Unnecessary and outrageous. Never did I think I would see this in my country. I’ve never been so disgusted by my government and so proud of my community.”
Gov. Kate Brown and other top state officials said at the time that the actions were a result of the politicization of federal action under President Donald Trump.
Hummel announced to his staff on August 23 that he would not seek a third term as district attorney, telling them he was interested in the U.S. Attorney position.
“I have made the difficult decision not to run for re-election, and I wanted you to hear this from me before I inform the public, Hummel wrote.”Working with all of you for the past seven years has been an honor.”
Hummel has been open about his desire to become a top federal law enforcement official in Oregon.
“I am not sure what comes next for my own career. It’s too soon for me to lock down on 2023 career options,” Hummel said in the staff note. “I remain interested in the U.S. Attorney position, but my decision to forgo re-election has nothing to do with that potential nomination.
In an April guest commentary in the Portland Tribune, Hummel said that the defeat of President Trump was not the end of the struggle for civil rights.
“Despite the results of the recent election, hate and bigotry have not been defeated and, sadly, seem to be growing. It’s up to all of us to lead — local elected officials, community organizers, religious leaders, students, the business community, you and me,” Hummel wrote.
When Trump was elected in 2016, Senators Merkley and Wyden lobbied to have then-acting U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams nominated for the position. Williams had held the “acting” position since May 2015.
While serving under President Barack Obama, Williams had prosecuted Ammon and Ryan Bundy, along with others, who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 41 days in 2016. The Bundys were acquitted at trial.
The senators said at the time of Trump’s election that they were worried Trump would appoint a more ideological top federal prosecutor in the state than Williams, who they saw as a no-nonsense, by-the-book lawman.
Republican political leaders in Oregon suggested several candidates, including then House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte.
McLane did not get the nod, and eventually was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown to a circuit court judgeship for Crook and Jefferson counties. He stepped down from the bench earlier this year to return to private law practice in Bend.
Trump eventually nominated Williams in November 2017 to serve a four-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2018.
Relationships between federal, state and local political and law enforcement leaders became strained in 2020 after a Minneapolis policeman killed George Floyd, a black man, on May 25.
A jury would later convict the officer of murder, and the video of the incident sparked nationwide demonstrations. Portland was among the most active and confrontational clashes in the weeks after the murder.
Protestors sometimes attacked federal property, moving Williams to use an assortment of federal agency personnel as tactical squads. In riot gear, but at times with differing agency markings, the units were used to suppress sometimes violent demonstrations targeting the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, and other federal buildings in downtown Portland.
Williams also sent a Border Patrol tactical squad from Portland to Bend to forcibly extract Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents who had detained two suspected non-citizens and were trying to remove them from the city by bus.
Demonstrators surrounded the buses. Bend Police followed a city policy of non-assistance on ICE arrests that were based solely on legal residency. When the stand-off stretched into the night, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical squad in riot gear was sent to Bend to take actions necessary to end the blockade.
The U.S. Attorney serves at the pleasure of the President of the United States. When Biden was sworn into office in January, he soon after asked many U.S. attorneys, including Williams, to submit their resignations — a not unusual event during the change of presidential administrations.
Williams officially stepped down on February 28. Scott Erik Asphaug has been serving as Acting U.S. Attorney.
Send comments to selectioncommittee_@wyden.senate.gov by November 5. All comments will be shared confidentially with all members of the selection committee.
