Coffin tapped for U.S. attorney

[BlueJessamine]

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Friday he has nominated Burlington attorney Tristram J. Coffin to become Vermont's next U.S. attorney.

"Tris Coffin is a perfect fit for a difficult job," Leahy said in a statement released by his office. "He has a wide range of investigative and courtroom experience that will allow him to hit the ground running."

The Free Press reported earlier this month that Coffin was a finalist for the job.

Coffin's name will now be forwarded to the White House, and he will undergo a background check by the FBI. His appointment becomes official once the background check is completed, and President Barack Obama formally appoints him to the position.

If confirmed, Coffin will become the 36th U.S. attorney in Vermont history, overseeing 19 federal prosecutors at offices in Burlington and Rutland.

"I am thrilled and very honored to be chosen to be recommended to President Obama," Coffin said Friday. "If I am confirmed, I will also be thrilled to serve as the U.S. attorney in Vermont."

Coffin, 45, of Hinesburg worked as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Leahy is a member, between 1991 and 1994. He later served as assistant U.S. attorney in Vermont between 1994 and 2006. He presently is in private practice in Burlington.

Leahy, as the state's senior senator of the president's party, has the privilege of recommending candidates for U.S. attorney in Vermont as well as three other federal posts in Vermont, including U.S. marshal.

Leahy praised outgoing U.S. Attorney Thomas D. Anderson, saying he and Coffin were "the kind of thoroughgoing professionals who have helped make our justice system the envy of the world."

Anderson said Friday he thought Coffin was an excellent choice to replace him. The two men served together in the U.S. Attorney's Office for several years before Coffin left in 2006.

"Tris Coffin is a tough but very fair prosecutor," Anderson said. "I can't think of anyone in the district that's more qualified."

Anderson said he expects to stay on as U.S. attorney for the time being. He said Obama has asked all the U.S. attorneys to remain at their posts until their successors have been appointed.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090124/NEW...

[Mister Ed]

1. Why did the US Attorney want someone to tap a coffin? n/t

[Wiley50]

2. More than that: which US attorney do they plan on tapping?

Has anyone contacted the Secret Service?

[cali]

3. Tristam Coffin is a great name

other than that, I don't know anything about him.

[susu369]

4. Interesting lineage

Tristram Coffin died on 2 October 1681 at Nantucket, Nantucket Island, MA, at age 72.

He left England when Cromwell's men took over his ancestral manor at Brixton. Coffyn's early years in England were during a very eventful time. Intellectual freedom was being claimed as a right for each individual. This period was during the reign of James I. Among the names of the day were William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and Oliver Cromwell. It was a period when the Puritans were making large gains in the Parliament.

He came to the shores of America with his widowed mother, Joanna, his pregnant wife Dionis, and five children, about 1643, to Newbury, MA, then to Salisbury, MA.

In 1660 they settled at Nantucket, being one of the first ten purchasers of the island. He was commissioned as the first Chief Magistrate of Nantucket on June 29, 1671, by New York Governor Lovelace and by New York Governor Andres in 1677.

http://www.citereh.com/p12.htm