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Loretta Lynch Pledges Tough Enforcement on White Collar Crime

Douglas Plamer/Flickr
Nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, was questioned during a confirmation hearing about her stance on white collar crime.

Loretta Lynch had never regarded anyone as too big to jail

Although the headlines focused on immigration and marijuana, President Obama’s nominee for attorney general has also pledged to get tough on white collar crime, and corporate malfeasance. 

Loretta Lynch was questioned by Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, during her confirmation hearing. Noting that the Justice Department has been criticized in the past for being too lenient on corporate defendants, Blumenthal asked, “would you consider pursuing more aggressively criminal laws that may be applied to corporate officers who are involved in malfeasance, or violations of federal criminal laws generally?” 

Senator Blumenthal also asked Lynch if she would support his push for legislation that would hold corporate officers liable if they knew a company's conditions or policies would harm workers, a bill he's calling Hide No Harm.

Lynch replied that as a prosecutor in New York she had never regarded anyone as too big to jail. The nominee for attorney general went on to note that, “as a career prosecutor and as U.S. Attorney, I’ve been very aggressive in pursing those types of cases.” Lynch went on, “we have been very clear, with respect to the industries within which we are looking, that should a corporation not engage in preventive behavior, or should they not take seriously the type of investigation that we bring, that criminal charges will be brought.”

The GOP led Senate must vote to confirm Lynch in coming weeks.

Harriet Jones is Managing Editor for Connecticut Public Radio, overseeing the coverage of daily stories from our busy newsroom.

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