Washington - President Barack Obama's choice for US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, was sworn in at her new job on Monday, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
A career prosecutor known for trying high-profile anti-terrorism trials in New York, Lynch, 55, said she was "honoured beyond words" to take over the job of the nation's top prosecutor.
Lynch vowed "to not just represent the law and enforce the law, but to use it to make real the promise of America -- the promise of fairness. The promise of equality. Of liberty and justice for all," she said in remarks after taking her oath.
Lynch served twice as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and has come to be known as a relentless federal prosecutor who put mobsters and terror suspects behind bars.
Her office has prosecuted more terrorism cases since the 9/11 attacks of 2001 than any other office.
Just last week, she announced a 25-year prison sentence for an American from New York who admitted he tried to join an Al-Qaeda group.
In previous years, she successfully prosecuted the terrorists who plotted to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank and the New York subway.
She also went after corrupt public servants and politicians in both parties, and won billions of dollars in settlements in fraud cases involving major banks.
"She excelled in everything she's done from the time she was a child. She never had been limited by lower expectations of others," he said.
"She's shown resolve to prosecute and jail terrorists, mobsters and gang members. She's shown fidelity to the law and rooted out public corruption and shown determination to bring down financial fraudsters and child abusers and shown pursuit to bust the brutal human trafficking rings that she's encountered," Biden said.
AFP
