President Obama Nominates Two Norton U.S. Marshal Recommendations

November 17, 2010 

WASHINGTON, DC - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that President Barack Obama will nominate Norton's two U.S. Marshal recommendations for Senate confirmation.  In June, Congresswoman Norton asked the President to nominate Edwin Donovan Sloane for U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, and Esteban Soto III for U.S. Marshal for the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.  President Obama, like President Clinton, granted Norton senatorial courtesy, a privilege usually reserved for home-state senators, to recommend federal district court judges, the U.S. Attorney, and other important federal law enforcement officials in the District.

"Among the especially well-qualified applicants, these two nominees were the best suited at this time for these two important law enforcement offices, among the candidates recommended to me by my Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission," Norton said.  "Edwin Sloane, currently the Acting U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, is held in exceptionally high regard among judges and other court personnel as a proactive, collegial problem solver who inherited an office facing multiple difficulties, with no director, and turned the office around.  It is always a pleasure to promote from within, particularly when a candidate has essentially done the job at hand and has already shown that he can do it well."  The Congresswoman recommended Esteban Soto because, like Sloane, he brought "unique qualifications among the candidates for the Superior Court Marshal's office.  His experience in resolving troublesome issues in a similar Marshal's post is well suited for the Superior Court office, which has been continually staffed with deputy Marshals from other jurisdictions and thus has accumulated its own set of problems.  Esteban Soto has been a U.S. Marshal and also previously worked in D.C. District Court as a Supervisory Criminal Investigator for the Marshal Service."

Both of these candidates and the others who applied were interviewed and vetted by the Congresswoman's 17-member Commission of D.C. residents, chaired by Pauline Schneider, which investigates candidates and makes recommendations from which the Congresswoman selects her final choices to submit to the President.  The nominees will now go to the Senate, where confirmation of U.S. Marshals is generally routine.