Askume, Sept 19 – A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday advanced four of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, including a Chicago chief previously nominated by Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance, the federal prosecutor who opposed President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 8 to send the nomination of April Perry, a lifelong judge of the Northern District of Illinois, to the full Senate for consideration.
Perry, a former prosecutor, will serve as senior counsel for global investigations and fraud and abuse prevention at Chicago-based GE Healthcare until 2022. Biden nominated him to the bench in April.
Biden previously nominated her to become the first female US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago in 2023. She has the support of Dick Durbin, the state’s senior senator and the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
But his path to full Senate confirmation has been blocked by Vance, an Ohio Republican, who has placed a “hold” on several U.S. attorney nominees, preventing them from being easily confirmed by the Senate.
Special counsel Jack Smith was indicted in June 2023 on charges of preserving classified documents and conducting an illegal effort to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.After leaving office , Vance began vetoing Biden’s nominations to the U.S. Department of Justice, which would lead to the first of two federal impeachments against Trump.
Vance is now Trump’s running mate in the November 5 presidential election , where he will face Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris.
Durbin made multiple trips to the House to secure Perry’s confirmation, but Vance opposed his confirmation by unanimous consent — the Senate’s historical method of appointing U.S. attorneys to avoid a time-consuming roll call vote.
The White House later abandoned efforts to appoint Perry to the position and instead nominated him to the bench. Vance blocked four other U.S. Attorney nominees from Iowa, Massachusetts, and Ohio.
Perry was one of two Illinois judicial nominees confirmed by the Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The panel also voted 13-8 in favor of U.S. District Judge Jonathan Hawley, who serves as a District Court judge for the Middle District of Illinois.
“Now that the committee has elevated him, we will urge the full Senate to expeditiously consider his nomination,” Durbin and the state’s other Democratic senator, Tammy Duckworth, said in a joint statement.
The panel also nominated Byron Conway, an attorney with Habush, Habush & Rottier, who would become a judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin if confirmed, and Gail Weilheimer, a Pennsylvania state court judge.
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