By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--May 16, 2017
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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he has told President Donald Trump that he should pick federal appeals judge Merrick Garland to succeed ousted director James Comey at the head of the FBI. Speaking in an interview on Bloomberg Television, McConnell said he has spoken with Trump and that Garland, a former federal prosecutor, would be "an apolitical professional" to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Garland was Democratic former President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, but Senate Republicans led by McConnell refused to act on the nomination for nearly a year. The delaying tactic allowed Trump to nominate conservative Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat after he took office in January. Garland, 64, has been praised by both Democrats and Republicans in his 20 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often called the second highest court in the country. His appointment there is a lifetime one, and if he took on a 10-year term at the FBI it would open up a top judicial seat for the Republican president to fill.
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