WASHINGTON — Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers was included on a list of 11 names floated Friday by the White House as candidates to replace ousted FBI Director James Comey — a move that could put the longtime legal eagle at the center of a simmering national controversy.
The addition of Suthers, who served as Colorado’s attorney general from 2005 to 2015, was confirmed by U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who said he raised the idea Wednesday during dinner with Vice President Mike Pence.
“I think (Suthers) could bring the kind of stability and the kind of tough-mindedness thatap needed at the FBI while assuring the American public that important work — like Russian investigations — are going to continue,” said Gardner, R-Colo.
The trial balloon of potential Comey successors comes the same week that President Donald Trump abruptly fired the FBI director and amid accusations that he did it because FBI officials were investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russian agents trying to influence the 2016 election.
“The next FBI director is obviously being appointed by Trump to end the Russia investigation and look the other way on corruption,” said Ian Silverii, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado. “Anyone who values their integrity and reputation would do well to steer clear of this appointment and the Trump administration altogether.”
Fox News publicized the Friday morning and it featured candidates such as Ray Kelly, the former police commissioner of New York City; Andrew McCabe, the acting FBI director; and Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. The Associated Press later .
A White House spokeswoman would not verify its accuracy and Suthers that he wasn’t taking questions about it.
“I’m honored to be listed among some tremendous law enforcement professionals, but at this point it would be premature to comment further,” Suthers wrote.
During his decade as attorney general, Suthers oversaw a number of high-profile — and often controversial — cases.
He joined with more than two dozen of his colleagues in as it tried to implement the Affordable Care Act, and he that backed the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which deterred gay marriage.
Suthers’ office also played a key role in a nationwide case that won a with the country’s five largest mortgage lenders for consumer abuses in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
“I don’t think there is a person in Colorado’s legal community or political community that is more universally respected and highly regarded as him. His integrity and character is wholly unimpeachable,” said , a lawyer with the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and one of Suthers’ first hires when he became attorney general.
Dunn added that Mitt Romney had considered Suthers as a potential pick for U.S. attorney general had the Republican candidate defeated President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
As mayor of Colorado Springs, Suthers has pushed to imposed by the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and has for its transgender community.
His potential nomination was greeted with applause from several high-profile Colorado politicos, from U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who called Suthers a man of the “.”
