Updated 12:22 p.m. | While CNN is reporting that President Barack Obama is expected to pick Loretta E. Lynch — a U.S. attorney in New York — to succeed Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general, the White House is denying that President Barack Obama has made a decision.  

“The president has not made a decision,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday.  

“We don’t have any personnel updates for you, and I’m certainly not going to speculate on any decisions before the President announces them,” Eric Schultz, deputy White House press secretary, said earlier in an email when asked about the CNN report . The New York Times called Lynch a “leading candidate” for the job.  

Lynch, an African-American woman with a Harvard law degree, has served two stints as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and has the support of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., the Times noted.  

The move would be a disappointment to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has pushed hard for Obama to name Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, a former head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to the post  

But Perez would face a major confirmation battle and might only get through the Senate if Democrats jam a pick through in the coming weeks, before Republicans take over.  

Confirmation of an attorney general by Republicans could be made easier by the fact that without a confirmed nominee, Republicans will be faced with Holder staying on.  

And they definitely don’t want that.  

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