WASHINGTON – Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Long has tried several high-profile cases, but some Republican senators vetting Wednesday his nomination to a New Orleans-based federal bench were more interested in his possible review of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The other Louisiana candidate for U.S. District judge in Louisiana, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Edwards Jr., of Shreveport, wasn’t quizzed too heavily by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But senators wanted to know what Long knew, when he knew it and what he passed along to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray about the laptop, and about other FBI controversies.
Long was Wray’s acting chief of staff until January 2021, when he returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. In October 2020, the FBI seized a computer that belonged to Hunter Biden and was abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware; Republicans, citing a 2020 article by the New York Post tabloid, suggest that the laptop contains evidence of how then-Vice President Joe Biden acted to protect his son during a Ukrainian corruption investigation.
“Sir, I have a problem with the fact that you were there in a leadership role during a time when actions were taken by a few people within the FBI that has caused enormous distrust,” said Sen. Maureen Blackburn R-Tennessee.
Outside agencies have conducted forensic analysis of the machine and found parts of thousands of emails, but nothing that proved the allegations. But some Republicans contend that a proper investigation has not been conducted by law enforcement.
U.S. Sen Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, continued the questioning Wednesday about the laptop.
Long responded that under the ethics code for federal law enforcement, he is forbidden from answering questions about ongoing investigations.
Hawley would have none of that.
“You are permitted to answer. You don’t want to answer because it would be inconvenient for you,” Hawley said. “I am absolutely stunned by this. And for that reason, among others, I cannot support your nomination.”
Actually, Long is obligated by law to stay quiet about ongoing investigations, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor who studies the federal judicial nomination process.
Tobias said Long’s monotone responses to Hawley’s increasingly emotional comments showed “very good judicial demeanor.”
At the end of the day, neither Long nor Edwards need the support of conservative Republicans, Tobias said. They have the backing of both Louisiana senators: John Kennedy, R-Madisonville and a member of Senate Judiciary, and Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
Cassidy’s and Kennedy’s support should be enough for the Senate committee to recommend that the two nominees be confirmed by the Democratic majority Senate. The full Senate could take the final confirmation vote after Labor Day and Long and Edwards could be sworn in as federal judges by October, Tobias said.
“We have two additional splendid nominees to offer to you,” Kennedy told his colleagues on Senate Judiciary Wednesday. “Unless they really, really, really screw up today, which I do not think they will, I’m going to vote for them.”
After graduating Duke University School of Law, Long, 47, went to work in 2005 for the King & Spalding law firm. In 2010, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., where he tried 27 criminal cases to verdict.
He was detailed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2020 after working six years for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans – two years of which he was deputy chief of the narcotics unit.
Long was co-counsel in the investigation and prosecution of Irvin Mayfield, co-founder of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and of his business partner Ronald Markham, both of whom went to prison for 18 months in 2020 after pleading guilty to siphoning $1.3 million from the New Orleans Public Library Foundation. In 2016, Long prosecuted retired Saints player Darren Sharper for using drugs to rape women. Sharper pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Edwards, 44, would be the first Black trial judge to serve in the 42-parish U.S. Western District of Louisiana, which is divided into five divisions: Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe and Shreveport.
After graduating law school at the University of Vermont, he clerked for Judges Scott Crichton and Jeanette Garrett when both were on the state First Judicial District Court in Shreveport.
In 2006, Edwards went to work for Blanchard, Walker, O’Quin & Roberts law firm in Shreveport, where he represented self-insured businesses, particularly Wal-Mart. Edwards joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Shreveport in 2019. He handled civil matters, such as employment disputes and challenges against federal agencies.
His extensive civil law experience was noted and questioned by Sen. Blackburn, who asked if he would be overwhelmed by the criminal cases federal judges also handle.
Edwards responded that as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney, he was required to oversee prosecution of federal crimes including cases of firearm and drug cases, gang violence, human trafficking, white collar crime, and public corruption. He began that job in 2022.
Ninety-five percent of his experience has been trial work, 60% of it in federal courts. He has tried nine cases to verdict.
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