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UPDATE, Nov. 7, 6:15 p.m. ET: On Friday evening, the White House announced President Barack Obama’s intent to nominate U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to be the Attorney General of the United States on Saturday.

“Ms. Lynch is a strong, independent prosecutor who has twice led one of the most important U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the country,” said the statement from the White House press office.

Obama is set to make the announcement in the Roosevelt Room at the White House alongside Attorney General Eric Holder and Lynch, who is the U.S. attorney for Eastern New York.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the Senate to confirm Lynch’s nomination in a statement released after the White House announcement.

“President Obama has chosen a great New Yorker as the country’s highest-ranking law enforcement official,” de Blasio said. “The nation is about to meet Loretta Lynch for the first time—but in the five boroughs, she is already known for her character, toughness and uncompromising sense of justice.”

Lynch, had emerged before the announcement as Obama’s top choice.

While some had said Obama was not ready to announce a nomination, unnamed sources with knowledge of his thinking had told multiple news outlets that Lynch was his leading candidate. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest emphasized during a press briefing earlier Friday, however, that Obama had not yet decided on his nominee.

Outside of legal circles, Lynch has flown under the radar for quite some time, despite having handled major cases in the U.S. Here are five key things to know about the intended nominee:

1. Lynch would be the first female African-American attorney general.

Image: John Minchillo/Associated Press

The milestone nomination would make Lynch the first African-American woman to hold the job if she is actually is nominated by Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Lynch was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1959, and is the daughter of a pastor.

She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, has been a federal prosecutor and also worked at several private law firms. Lynch, 55, would be Obama’s second trailblazing pick for the post after Eric Holder served as the nation’s first African-American attorney general.

2. She successfully prosecuted police in the Abner Louima case.

Image: Todd Plitt/Associated Press

During her first tenure in the Eastern District, Lynch helped prosecute police officers who severely beat and sexually assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima with a broken broom handle. The high-profile case led to the conviction of New York City police officer Justin Volpe and others.

As the U.S. attorney for Eastern New York, Lynch covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

3. Lynch prosecuted a Republican congressman who was recently re-elected to office

Image: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Lynch recently filed tax evasion charges against Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island accused of hiding more than $1 million in sales and wages while running a restaurant. Grimm, who won re-election against Democrat Domenic M. Recchia Jr. in Tuesday’s midterm elections, has pleaded not guilty; he is set to go to trial in February. Ironically, Grimm, once worked as an undercover FBI agent.

4. Corrupt New York lawmakers are Lynch’s specialty.

Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr. was sentenced to five years in jail after being prosecuted by Lynch on embezzlement charges, becoming one of many politicians she has successfully brought cases against. Espada recently pled guilty to one charge of tax evasion in the long-running case. He was convicted of stealing more than $400,000 from Soundview Health Center, his nonprofit organization.

“The indictment alleges that funds that could have been, and should have been, applied to purchase medical equipment, and hire personnel to enhance health care services for an underserved population, were diverted by the defendants for their personal use and to benefit friends and family members,”Lynch said. “In these difficult economic times, the charged crimes are all the more reprehensible.”

5. The movie Goodfellas was based on one of Lynch’s cases

Image: JUSTIN LANE/EPA

Lynch charged reputed mobster Vincent Asaro and his associates for the 36-year-old heist of $6 million in cash and jewelry from a Lufthansa Airlines vault at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which was dramatized in the blockbuster movie Goodfellas.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/11/07/thing-to-know-loretta-lynch/