Karin Immergut

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Karin Immergut
Karin J Immergut.jpg
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon
Assumed office
August 5, 2019
Appointed byDonald Trump
Preceded byAnna J. Brown
Judge of the Multnomah County Circuit Court
In office
July 2009 – August 5, 2019
Appointed byTed Kulongoski
Preceded byDale R. Koch
United States Attorney for the District of Oregon
In office
October 3, 2003 – July 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Barack Obama
Preceded byMichael W. Mosman
Succeeded byAmanda Marshall
Personal details
Born
Karin Johanna Immergut

(1960-12-22) December 22, 1960 (age 61)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic (Before 1998)
Independent (1998–2003)
Republican (2003–present)
Spouse(s)James McDermott
EducationAmherst College (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)

Karin Johanna Immergut (born December 22, 1960)[1] is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Early life and education[]

Immergut was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1960.[2][3] Her father was an Austrian chemist and her mother a Swedish mathematician.[3] Her parents married in Sweden and then immigrated to the United States where Karin was born.[3] She graduated from Amherst College in 1982 and received her Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1987.

Career[]

After law school she worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. for one year.

Following private practice, Immergut served as an assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles for six years. During her tenure in the Central District of California, Immergut prosecuted several large-scale complex narcotics and money laundering cases and served as a deputy chief of the Narcotics Section and chief of the Training Section.[2] She then moved to Burlington, Vermont, to work for the firm Gravel & Shea for two years.[3]

Immergut served for five years as a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, where she primarily prosecuted white collar crimes. In 1998, Immergut was a Multnomah County deputy district attorney and a longtime Democrat when she went to work for Ken Starr, who was investigating then-President Bill Clinton.[3] She re-registered as an independent upon taking that position. Immergut personally questioned Monica Lewinsky in an August 6, 1998, deposition.[4] In 2001, she joined the U.S. Attorney's office in Portland as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Oregon. Serving two years in the position, she prosecuted cases involving white collar crime and worked on Project Safe Neighborhoods, a national gun violence reduction initiative.

U.S. attorney[]

Immergut as U.S. attorney in 2008

Immergut was sworn in as interim United States attorney on October 3, 2003, and the United States Senate confirmed her nomination on that same date. She was appointed by President George W. Bush to the position.[2] Bush signed her commission to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon on October 4, 2003, and she was sworn in as the United States Attorney on October 8, 2003.[2] She succeeded Michael W. Mosman in that role.

As U.S. Attorney, Immergut served as the district's top federal law enforcement official. She managed a staff of approximately 107 people, including 51 assistant U.S. attorneys, who handled civil litigation on behalf of the United States and criminal investigations and prosecutions involving violations of federal law such as white collar crime, narcotics trafficking, violent crime, money laundering and cybercrime.[2] In addition, Immergut served on the Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.[5]

In January 2008, Immergut applied to succeed Judge Garr King on the United States District Court for Oregon. She was initially considered the leading candidate for the post as the preferred choice of U.S. Senator Gordon H. Smith.[4] But after news reports highlighting her role in the investigation of President Bill Clinton's sex scandal, she was not one of the final candidates for the position, which ultimately Marco A. Hernandez was appointed to.[6] She re-registered as a Republican at the beginning of Bush's first term as President, in the same month that she went to work for Mosman.[4] She resigned from the office in July 2009 in order to be appointed as Multnomah County Circuit Court judge.[7]

Federal judicial service[]

On June 7, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Immergut to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.[8] On June 11, 2018, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Immergut to the seat vacated by Judge Anna J. Brown, who assumed senior status on July 27, 2017.[9] On October 24, 2018, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[10]

On January 3, 2019, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On January 23, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to renominate Immergut for a federal judgeship.[11] Her nomination was sent to the Senate later that day.[12] On February 7, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 20–2 vote.[13] On July 31, 2019, the Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote. She received her judicial commission on August 5, 2019.

Personal life[]

In 1996, Immergut then moved to Portland, Oregon, where she married James T. McDermott and was hired by Multnomah County.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Lattman, Peter (January 25, 2006). "Karin Immergut & Patrick Fitzgerald: As Tight as the DOJ & SEC". The Wall Street Journal.
  2. ^ a b c d e "United States Attorney Karen J. Immergut". usdoj.gov. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Collins, Cliff (February–March 2004). "Profiles in the Law". Oregon State Bar Bulletin.
  4. ^ a b c Pitkin, James (January 16, 2008). "Judgment Call". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012.
  5. ^ "#003: 01-08-04 ATTORNEY GENERAL APPOINTS SIX NEW MEMBERS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL'S 2004 ADVISORY COMMITTEE". Usdoj.gov. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  6. ^ Pitkin, James (January 25, 2008). "Immergut's Out: The Final Three Who Are In For A Federal Judge Appointment". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012.
  7. ^ Pitkin, James (May 8, 2009). "U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut Lands on Plan B: Circuit Court Judge". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  8. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Fifteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Fourteenth Wave of United States Attorney Nominees, and Ninth Wave of United States Marshal Nominees" White House, June 7, 2018 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  9. ^ "Seventeen Nominations Sent to the Senate Today", White House, June 11, 2018
  10. ^ United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Nominations for October 24, 2018
  11. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Judicial Nominees", White House, January 23, 2019
  12. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate", White House, January 23, 2019
  13. ^ Results of Executive Business Meeting – February 7, 2019, Senate Judiciary Committee

External links[]

Legal offices
Preceded by United States Attorney for the District of Oregon
2003–2009 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Dale R. Koch
 Judge of the Multnomah County Circuit Court
2009–2019 		Vacant
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon
2019–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from ""