Jessie Liu Jessie Liu, U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., speaking at Main Justice in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Jessie Liu, the Trump administration's pick for third-in-command at the U.S. Justice Department, withdrew from consideration Thursday after reportedly facing opposition from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee over her past association with a legal group that opposed Justice Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Liu, the U.S. attorney in Washington, had been recommended for the role by Attorney General William Barr. The Justice Department did not immediately comment on why Liu had withdrawn her name from consideration.

Reuters and the Associated Press said Liu faced opposition on Capitol Hill over her affiliation with a women lawyers group that had expressed criticism in 2006 of Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Liu formerly was vice president of the National Association of Women Lawyers, a post she held from 2005 to 2006. The National Law Journal reported earlier this month that one of the association's committees in 2006 evaluated Alito and rated him “not qualified from a women's rights perspective.”

Alito, the committee said in a statement then, “has shown a disinclination to protect or advance women's rights.” Liu's name appeared on the letter the group sent to members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

The women lawyers committee said one of its primary concerns was “Alito's stance on women's reproductive rights” and that Alito would be replacing Sandra Day O'Connor, “who has been a decisive vote in a number of cases involving the rights of women and laws that have special impact on women.”

When the National Law Journal first reported on the Liu's ties to the Alito letter, the Justice Department said she had not been involved in the review of the then-U.S. appeals court judge. Liu told the National Review that she supported Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court and that she disagreed with the National Association of Women Lawyers evaluation of the nominee.

The National Review also reported that Liu “signed a letter of Yale Law School alumni in support of Alito's nomination, joining a number of conservative legal luminaries, including John Yoo, Steven Calabresi, George Conway, and Senator Josh Hawley.”

Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Barr said in a statement Thursday: “Jessie Liu is one of the finest, most impressive people serving in the Department of Justice. She has been an outstanding United States attorney and would have made an outstanding associate attorney general. I have zero doubt she would have faithfully executed my priorities and advanced my rule-of-law agenda.”

On Thursday, Barr appointed Liu as chairwoman of his advisory committee of U.S. attorneys. In a prepared statement, Barr hailed her as “an outstanding attorney with broad experience, is widely-respected, within the Department.” Barr also noted that Liu leads more than 300 prosecutors in the largest U.S. attorney's office. “Jessie will be an integral part of our leadership at the department. We will all benefit from her universally-regarded expertise and dedication to public service.”

Before President Donald Trump took office, Liu had been a partner Jenner & Block and then Morrison & Foerster. She initially joined the administration as deputy general counsel for the Treasury Department before taking the helm of the U.S. attorney's office in Washington in September 2017.

The Trump administration did not immediately name a new nominee for the No. 3 role at the Justice Department.

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Mike Scarcella contributed reporting from Washington.