NYPress

MARY JO OUT - & HILL'S FOE VIES FOR JOB

By BRIAN BLOMQUIST and DEVLIN BARRETT

November 16, 2001 -- Mary Jo White said yesterday she's quitting as Manhattan U.S. attorney, and sources say Gov. Pataki is considering former Whitewater prosecutor Robert Ray to replace her.

Sources say Pataki has backed away from Jim McGuire, his legislative counsel, as his first pick for the influential U.S. attorney job and is now leaning toward Ray, who replaced controversial Whitewater-Sexgate prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

That means Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who opposed McGuire, won the first round in his showdown with Pataki over who has the power to select federal prosecutors.

Schumer has veto power over New York U.S. attorneys because he sits on the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee, which must approve the nominees.

Schumer opposed McGuire because McGuire lacks federal experience, although it also was never clear that McGuire had the support of President Bush, who makes the appointment.

Ray, who ran unsuccessfully for school board in Brooklyn in the 1990s, does have federal experience - and a bitter history with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)

When Ray decided last year not to prosecute the former first lady over her role in the White House Travel Office firings, he infuriated her loyalists by putting out a press release that painted her as a liar in the midst of her Senate campaign.

Ray agreed not to indict Bill Clinton for his lies about Monica Lewinsky, while the former president agreed to pay a $25,000 fine, surrender his Arkansas law license, and admit he made "false" statements under oath.

White, who began her tenure overseeing the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case and ended it working on the vast probe into the towers' complete destruction, plans to leave office Jan. 1.

Since the terror attacks, White has lobbied hard to prosecute the suspects and their accomplices, but was turned down by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

White's announcement comes just days after the White House revealed it was creating a special military tribunal that could possibly put terrorists on trial.

Meanwhile, Pataki also is pushing an aide, state inspector general Rosslyn Mauskopf, for Brooklyn U.S. attorney.

Schumer is still considering whether he'll support Mauskopf for the job, although two lawyers familiar with the search say Schumer initially opposed her because he considered her a pick of ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato.

"I'll be goddamned if I'm going to let Al D'Amato select U.S. attorney candidates. I'm the one who won the election, not him," Schumer was quoted as saying, according to sources.

Schumer's aides deny he ever made the statement.

An aide to D'Amato denied the ex-senator had any involvement in the selection.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001