Troy Eid - Appointment To U.S. Attorney

Appointment To U.S. Attorney

When Colorado U.S. Attorney John Suthers was appointed the state's attorney general in December 2004, Troy Eid was considered for his replacement, along with Larimer County District Attorney Stu VanMeveren and Arapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters. Eid withdrew his name from consideration in January 2006, claiming the 13-month selection process was taking too long. Eid also withdrew in part because his wife, Allison Eid, was under consideration for the Denver-based Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the appointment would have created a conflict of interest since the U.S. Attorney oversees cases that often end up in the circuit court. Eid denied that his withdrawal had anything to do with Jack Abramoff, who had recently been fired from Greenberg Traurig and who was later sentenced to serve five years and ten months in prison on numerous fraud convictions. Eid insisted the fact that he had been selected for an internal ethics committee at the firm indicated that he didn't "have an Abramoff problem."

After withdrawing, Eid announced he would run for an at-large seat on the University of Colorado Board of Regents. In March 2006, Allison Eid was appointed Associate Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, which removed the potential conflict because the U.S. Attorney does not get involved in state court matters. By that time, VanMeveren and Peters had also been removed from consideration for U.S. Attorney. When the White House asked for three more names, Senator Wayne Allard recommended only William Leone, who had been serving as acting U.S. Attorney since January 1, 2005. Leone, however, had been placed on a list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired for political reasons by Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and the White House instead asked Eid to reconsider. White House officials did not consider any other candidates besides Eid, who suspended his campaign for the University of Colorado Board of Regents in order to accept the U.S. Attorney position.

Eid was appointed to the position by President George W. Bush on June 9, 2006, making him the 41st United States Attorney for the state of Colorado and the first Arab-American ever appointed to serve as a U.S. Attorney. Eid, who said he was "totally stunned" by the invitation, was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on August 4, 2006. He served as Colorado's chief federal criminal prosecutor and represented the United States in civil cases where the government was party to a lawsuit. When Eid started the position with about 2,500 civil and criminal cases among 120 people, which he described as one of the heaviest caseloads outside of Washington, D.C. In addition to the cases, Eid said his priorities upon assuming the office were enforcing immigration laws, cracking down on drug trafficking, and creating a cyber-crime unit to fight child solicitation and pornography. In his first few weeks on the job, Eid visited with local, state and federal law enforcement and met one-on-one with everybody on his approximately 140-person staff. The salary was about $142,000 a year.