Attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch plans to tell senators that she doesn’t believe President Barack Obama has blanket power to grant “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants, but she’ll argue that the president’s sweeping moves on the issue have stayed within the bounds of the Constitution.

As her confirmation hearings begin Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lynch will aim for a balancing act with Republicans who hope to derail her nomination by seizing on her views about immigration and Obama’s use of executive power, according to a person involved in her preparations.


Lynch, 55, will not be drawn into “political back-and-forth on issues” such as immigration and will “calmly and dispassionately emphasize her record as an independent, career prosecutor,” the person said. While she will support Obama’s legal rationale for his actions on immigration, she will express caution about going too far, the source said — and she’ll contend that the president’s latest unilateral steps don’t amount to “amnesty.”

She also will tell the panel that the Constitution will be her “lodestar” in determining the legality of the president’s actions, the source said.

Lynch, a federal prosecutor who would be the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general, has been methodically preparing for her hearings since early December in closed-door sessions with senior administration officials.

White House and Justice Department officials predict that committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and other Republicans will focus most heavily on Obama’s immigration decisions. In November, shortly after Republicans won control of the Senate, Obama issued executive orders granting work permits and a three-year reprieve from deportation for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants. The move infuriated Republicans while delighting immigration reform supporters, setting off a political and legal battle that continues to play out on Capitol Hill and across the country.

As the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, Lynch will contend she had “no part” in the Obama administration’s formulation of the policy, although Lynch will note she has reviewed the memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that laid out its legal parameters.

“[Lynch] has said that she believes that a unilateral attempt to grant outright amnesty would amount to an unlawful overreach, but that she understands the OLC memo to outline a reasonable, legal basis for the Department of Homeland Security’s removal priorities,” the source said. “She does not believe that the policy setting these priorities grants amnesty or provides automatic work permits.”

Lynch has made similar statements in her private sessions with senators, and administration officials are prepared to make the case that it would be unfair for Republicans to block a qualified nominee on the basis of the president’s immigration policies.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, offered a similar argument in a statement on Tuesday. “Ms. Lynch deserves to be judged on her own record,” he said. “I am confident that if we stay focused on Ms. Lynch’s impeccable qualifications and her reputation for fairness, she will be quickly confirmed by the Senate.”

Whether such remarks will pass muster with most Republicans is an open question.

“I’d be troubled that you could say the president has the authority to issue work permits” for undocumented immigrants, said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a senior member on the Judiciary panel and chief foe of loosening immigration laws. “At the end, attorney generals — it’s always been known — have to say ‘no’ sometimes. They have to walk to the White House and say: ‘Mr. President, this is too far. You can’t do this. This will weaken the rule of the law in the country.’ … I want to see if she will do that.”

Likely presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, who serves as a committee member, also indicated he’s looking for signs of independence from Obama’s agenda.

“In order for the Senate to confirm Ms. Lynch or anyone else to be attorney general, we need an attorney general who will stop being a partisan attack dog and will instead get back to the traditions of upholding the Constitution and the law in a fair and impartial manner,” the Texas Republican said.

Lynch, who is drafting her own opening statement in consultation with the administration, has quietly spent two to three days per week in Washington since Obama nominated her in November, attending issue briefings and “murder boards” with Justice Department and White House officials to prepare for her hearings, according to the source familiar with the preparations. By the time the hearings start, she will have met with more than half the Senate, including everyone on the Judiciary Committee.

New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand will introduce Lynch on Wednesday, sources said.

Despite Republican control of the Senate, the expectation in Washington is that Lynch’s confirmation is largely assured — unless she trips up in the hearings. Republicans, who loathe outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, are eager to find a replacement for him. And nothing in Lynch’s background has yet to raise a red flag that could derail her nomination.

In her testimony, Lynch plans to highlight her success as a prosecutor and her priorities for the Justice Department. Lynch, who attended Harvard for her undergraduate and law degrees, is in her second stint as a U.S. attorney, having previously held that position under President Bill Clinton.

Lynch will emphasize that the department will focus on national security and cyber terrorism during her tenure. She will highlight her work on public corruption cases, including the indictment and conviction of a Democratic former New York state senator, Pedro Espada, on embezzlement charges.

Lynch also will note that her office has handled more terrorism-related cases than any other U.S. attorney’s office, including several recent high-profile proceedings.

The administration has been playing up all the endorsements Lynch has received, including from numerous law enforcement and legal groups. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh and New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton praised her Tuesday during a conference call to rally support for her nomination.

“She’s just an extraordinary candidate,” said Freeh, who got to know Lynch during her first go-round as a U.S. attorney in Brooklyn during the late 1990s. “I’ve been in the law enforcement business for about 25 years, and I can’t think of a stronger candidate.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national organizations, also released a letter Tuesday, calling on the Judiciary Committee to quickly approve Lynch’s nomination.

Proponents point to her humble upbringing in the South at a time of difficult race relations, including the way white administrators at her high school made her split her valedictorian honors with a white male student. Relatives including her father, a retired Baptist preacher from North Carolina, will accompany Lynch at the hearing.

Few would quibble with Lynch’s background as a prosecutor. But several Republicans say they’re skeptical she’d prevent Obama from picking and choosing which laws to enforce. Beyond immigration, Republicans are likely to push Lynch on how she views the enforcement of state marijuana laws, as well as the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange and the administration’s failure to notify Congress about the swap. She plans to emphasize that an “appropriate balance” should exist between the executive and legislative branches.

Meanwhile, the witnesses that Republicans have invited on the second day of the hearingssuggest they will spend much of that time bashing the Justice Department’s record under Holder.

For instance, Republicans have asked former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson to testify. Attkisson, now a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, has reported extensively on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, a case that led the House to declare Holder in contempt. Attkisson also has suggested that administration officials gained access to her computer to search for information on her reporting on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Another Republican witness is expected to testify that the Justice Department has failed to conduct a thorough criminal probe into whether the Internal Revenue Service illegally denied nonprofit tax status to some conservative organizations.

Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

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