Attorney General Loretta Lynch appeared on stage at a downtown Washington, D.C., theater yesterday, where President Barack Obama and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave her a grand debut as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, the National Law Journal reports. The event, which included Sotomayor’s swearing in Lynch on Frederick Douglass’ bible, was ceremonial. Lynch has led the Justice Department since Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office in late April.
Obama provided the formal occasion with a moment of levity when he highlighted Lynch’s parents, Lorenzo and Lorine. The president said, “Apparently, when she applied to work at the U.S. attorney's office and a FBI agent went to their house to conduct a routine background check, her parents pulled out a bunch of scrapbooks of Loretta's accomplishments and made the agents look through them. I’m sure Loretta was mortified…(an) agent later told Loretta that she probably wasn't a threat to America because if she were, ‘her parents would have documented it in some way.’ ” Obama said, “She hit the ground running from day one.”