President Barack Obama is expected to nominate Atlanta's top federal prosecutor as the next deputy attorney general on Monday, according to the White House. Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has already been announced as the replacement of Attorney General Eric Holder.
Sally Quillian Yates, in line for the No. 2 position at the Department of Justice, currently serves as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, a U.S. official said. She will be taking over the Justice Department's day-to-day operations, the Associated Press reported.
"Their very effective partnership leading the U.S. attorney community will be taken to a whole new level," said U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, who previously led the committee.
If approved by the Senate as deputy attorney general, Yates would take over for James Cole, who announced his plans to leave the department weeks after his boss, Holder, also said he intended to resign.
Her "leadership in combating public corruption has rightfully earned accolades at every level of law enforcement," Holder said.
The 54-year-old, who led the high-profile successful prosecution of Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing case, is a vocal proponent of Holder's policies on lowering incarceration rates by cutting jail time for low-level drug offenders.
"The choice of Yates signals that little may change at the Justice Department after Holder leaves the post," Reuters reported.
Some Republicans, including Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and David Vitter, have threatened to hold up confirmation of the new attorney general, who would oversee Yates, over disagreements with Obama's new immigration policy.
But Yates has reportedly found support among some congressional Republicans, with Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) telling The Wall Street Journal that she "will have my full support" if nominated.
Yates's husband, Comer Yates, unsuccessfully ran twice for Congress as a Democrat and recently has been a prominent Atlanta-area Democratic donor.
Meanwhile, Yates has also served as vice chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.
