President Barack Obama is nominating a former White House lawyer, Cassandra Butts, to be the next U.S. ambassador to The Bahamas.

Butts served as deputy White House counsel during Obama’s first year in office. She was also general counsel for the White House transition team during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Butts left the White House to serve as a senior adviser to an independent U.S. foreign aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corp. She previously worked as an adviser to Democratic congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who also served as the Democratic leader of the House.

This is an excerpt from AP/ABC News as it appeared on February 10, 2014. For updates or to read the current version of this post in its entirety, please click here.

Continue reading this post >