From 1983 to 1989, Joe Lieberman served as the state Attorney General of Connecticut, not the chief state’s attorney. He had no involvement in criminal cases or prosecutions, and never has to this day.
Nevertheless we can expect to keep hearing about this six year stint, out of his 45 years in politics, as the reason he is qualified to lead the FBI now, despite his lack of involvement in any criminal cases!
In Connecticut, state civil and criminal legal duties are split between two posts.
For civil cases: ”The Attorney General is the chief civil legal officer of the State.”
For criminal cases: "The prosecutorial power of the state shall be vested in a chief state's attorney and the state's attorney for each judicial district."
Take this Medicaid fraud case for example. The Attorney General handles the civil side of the case and the civil penalties, while the chief state’s attorney handles the criminal prosecution, instead.
Sounds like a perfect FBI candidate for Trump. A career politician with no experience in criminal law!
According to his online profile at Kasowitz Benson Torres, LLP, where Trump is currently a client:
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman applies the investigative skills he honed as United States Senator and Attorney General of the State of Connecticut to represent clients in independent and internal investigations and advise them on a wide range of public policy, strategic and regulatory issues. As a seasoned leader who is skilled in the art of facilitating mutually beneficial and strategic agreements, Senator Lieberman also assists corporate clients on tax, health care, security and intellectual property matters. In addition, he counsels clients on international expansion initiatives and business plans.
According to Wikipedia, he has no legal experience beyond his time as Attorney General and his time now at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, since 2013, which no doubt made him qualified in Trump’s view:
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lieberman is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School. He was elected as a "Reform Democrat" in 1970 to the Connecticut Senate, where he served three terms as Majority Leader. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, he served as state Attorney General from 1983 to 1989. Lieberman defeated moderate Republican Lowell Weicker in 1988 to win election to the U.S. Senate, and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000. Lieberman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in the 2000 United States presidential election, running with presidential nominee Al Gore, and becoming the first Jewish candidate on a major American political party presidential ticket.[1][2]
In the 2000 presidential election, Gore and Lieberman won the popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000 votes, but lost the deciding Electoral College to the Republican George W. Bush / Dick Cheney ticket 271–266. Lieberman also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election.
During his re-election bid in 2006, he lost the Democratic Party primary election, but won re-election in the general election as a third party candidate under the "Connecticut for Lieberman" party label. Lieberman himself was never a member of that party, but instead remained a registered Democrat while he ran....[3]
As Senator, he introduced and championed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and legislation that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. During debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as the crucial 60th vote needed to pass the legislation, Lieberman's opposition to the public option was critical for its removal from the resulting bill.[7] Lieberman announced in January 2011 that he would retire from the Senate at the end of his term, and he did so in January 2013.[8]
UPDATE - Apparently even White House staff are not sure Lieberman is qualified:
President Trump, 24 hours from his self-imposed deadline for picking a new F.B.I. director, told reporters on Thursday that he was “very close” to choosing a successor to James B. Comey, and he named Joseph I. Lieberman, the former Democratic senator and vice-presidential nominee, as a finalist.
But members of Mr. Trump’s staff — alarmed by his rapid embrace of Mr. Lieberman, a charming 75-year-old political operator with no federal law enforcement experience — have quietly urged him to take more time to make such a critical hire. By late Thursday, the president appeared increasingly likely to leave Friday for a nine-day foreign trip without picking a new director, according to three senior administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Lieberman, who served three terms in the Senate as a Democrat and one as an independent, would be an atypical choice to lead the F.B.I., whose agents prize the bureau’s independence as one of Washington’s few apolitical institutions. Judges and former prosecutors, not elected officials, have frequently been chosen.
Administration officials described the search as fluid and said the president and his team were keeping the decision-making process closely held to avoid the leaks that Mr. Trump believes are endemic to the West Wing.