Obama taps Atlanta prosecutor for DOJ

President Obama will nominate Atlanta’s top federal prosecutor as the next deputy attorney general, according to the White House.

Sally Quillian Yates, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, who led the prosecution of Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing case, would take over the Justice Department’s day-to-day operations. 

{mosads}If approved by the Senate, Yates would take over for James Cole, who announced his plans to leave the department weeks after his boss, Attorney General Eric Holder, also said he intended to resign. President Obama has nominated Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to replace Holder.

Yates’s husband, Comer Yates, twice unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat and recently has been a prominent Atlanta-area Democratic donor. 

But she’s thought to have support among congressional Republicans, with Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) telling The Wall Street Journal she “will have my full support” if nominated. 

That’s thanks partially to her work prosecuting former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell (D), who was convicted on three counts of tax evasion stemming from his tenure as mayor.

Yates also headed the prosecution of former state schools Superintendent Linda Schrenko, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2002. She pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering after using federal education funds for her campaign and plastic surgery.

This story was updated at 3:10 p.m.