If speculation holds true, President Obama is slated to tap Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, to replace Eric Holder as the next attorney general, according to officials who heard reports of the president's decision and told CNN.
According to several news sources, the decision is all but done, but the White House has not confirmed the selection of the 55-year-old Harvard Law School graduate.
"The president has not made a decision on that, and we're not going to have any personnel announcements today on that matter," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told CNN.
President Obama may not make the selection official until later this month. According to CNN, the president is slated to take a weeklong trip to Europe that will begin Saturday and may make an official announcement when he returns.
If Lynch is nominated and confirmed, she would become the second African American and the second woman to hold the post.
According to The Hill, her most notable case includes charges against the New York City Police Department officers who beat and sexually abused a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima.
The Hill notes that before Loretta Lynch became the consensus front-runner for the position, President Obama said Wednesday that the search was still on, noting that there were "a number of outstanding candidates whom we're taking a look at now," and pledging an announcement "in due course."
"I'm confident that we'll find somebody who is well-qualified, will elicit the confidence of the American people, will uphold their constitutional obligations and rule of law, and will get confirmed by the Senate," he said, according to The Hill.