A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 182: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

A) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

B) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

D) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

E) whom is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

The OFFICIAL EXPLANATION is    here .

Shivan21 · Accepted Answer

A)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both  seen by most legal observers as   a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

B) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both  seen by most legal observers as  a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment,  is seen by most legal observers as  both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

D)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

E)  whom is  seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

Below are the main decision points:

1. WHO Vs. WHOM
Since "Southern District of New York" is an Object for the verb in the sentence, WHOM should be used in place of WHO
Therefore  A & D  are out for using WHO
"WHOM IS" not the correct expression and therefore  E  is also out

2. "BOTH SEEN AS" Vs. "SEEN AS BOTH"
"SEEN AS BOTH" is the correct usage here since the below option makes sense:
He is seen as both:
- a savvy political maneuver
- an abrogation of professional responsibility

This version is incorrect:
He is both:
- seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver
- an abrogation of professional responsibility

Therefore  C  wins over  B  IMO

sathik63 · Answer

Split 1 both seen vs seen by both

Here the intended meaning is seen by both X and Y. We can also eliminate A and B using parallelism. Both X AND Y is not parallel in A and B.

C, D and E remain

Split 2 who vs whom.

Here whom refers to the attorney and conveys the clear meaning. D is out

Between C and E, 
E is incorrect for the usage of whom is seen.

C is clear without any errors.

Posted from my mobile device

eakabuah · Answer

There are two main splits in this sentence.
Split#1: who vs whom
split#2:the idiom both x and y

Split#1:  who  vs  whom .
who is used as the subject of a relative clause while whom is used as the object of a verb or a preposition. To decide which is the correct choice, we need to ask the question: what role is who/whom playing in the second clause? Armed with this information lets narrow down on the options.
In option A, the subject of the second clause is  many , hence  whom  is required instead of who. Based on this, we can eliminate option A.
In option B, the subject is  many , hence who/whom plays the role of an object.  whom  instead of  who  is the correct option. Keep B for now.
In option C, the subject is  many , hence  whom  is appropriate. Keep C.
In option D, the subject is  many , hence  whom  rather than  who  is appropriate. Eliminate option D.
In option E, who/whom is the subject, hence the  who  is appropriate. Eliminate option E.

We are down to options B and C.
Split#2: both  x  and  y . The trick here is that  x  and  y  must be parallel. So let's identify the  X  and  Y  and test for parallelism.
In option B,  X :  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver ;  Y :  an abrogation of professional responsibility .  X  and  Y  are not parallel.  X , a verb phrase is not parallel to  Y , a noun phrase. In order for B to be parallel, either Y should be:  seen by most legal observers as an abrogation of professional responsibility , whereby  Y  is also converted into a verb phrase or  seen by most legal observers  precedes both, in which X and Y now become noun phrases. Eliminate option B.

In option C,  X :  a savvy political maneuver ;  Y :  an abrogation of professional responsibility . X and Y are parallel. The answer is, therefore, option C.

Based on split#2, options A, is also incorrect, because of parallelism error.

Option A: A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility .

Option B: A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and an  abrogation of professional responsibility.

Option C: A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both  a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility .

Option D: A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both  a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility .

Option E: A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  whom  is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both  a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility .

TheNightKing · Answer

Usage of who is not correct here. 
We need whom to refer back to the US Attorney.

When in doubt, try this simple trick: If you can replace the word with “he”' or “'she,” use who. If you can replace it with “him” or “her,” use whom.

whom is seen as a leading is absurd.

Now we boil down to the last factor, both seen vs seen as both. Usage of later is correct. Seen as both X and Y.

C is the winner.!

generis · Answer

The link to this question was not on the first page of SC Butler (in the summary of questions broken out by month). (I wondered why so few people had taken the question.

) I have extended the time to answer by 12 hours. See the original post at the top for the new time that the OA will be revealed. For future reference: I always post two questions. If my summary on page 1 of SC Butler (the page with the picture of the butler) does not give a proper link to a question, go to the last available page of SC Butler. I post links to the day's questions in a separate post before I enter the questions in the summary on the first page. You can find that separate post by going to the main SC Butler page and selecting the last page available, this way SC Butler separate post with links how to find it.JPG If you click on that last page indicated by the red arrow, you will find the most recent day's questions, with links, in a post that is dated. If you were to click on that page 11, you would scroll down until you saw the post for OCTOBER 23, 2019, which is here .

snoep · Answer

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

structure of the sentence is - Decision made by Attorney, Who/Whom many consider..., is seen by legal observers as both A and B. is seen by legal observers as Savvy political maneuver and is seen by legal observers as an abrogation of professional responsibility

Between Who/Whom, because Attorney is object of the what many consider, it should be Whom. If confused, replace Who/Whom with he/him. Many consider him as a leading contender. Him -> Whom.

A)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is  both seen by most  legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and an abrogation  of professional responsibility
Whom is the correct pronoun to use. Parallelism error with 'Both'

B)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is  both seen by most legal  observers as a savvy political maneuver  and an abrogation  of professional responsibility
Parallelism error with 'Both'

C)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as  both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of  professional responsibility
It corrects pronoun and parallelism errors

D)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as  both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation  of professional responsibility
Whom is the correct pronoun to use.

E)  whom  is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as  both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of  professional responsibility
While this corrects the pronoun and parallelism error. it introduces other error of attorney seen as a leading contender. while in verbal diction 'seen' is used as visualising him as a leading contender, 'consider' is a better word to describe this expression of others for him

Lampard42 · Answer

A) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility  - Placement of "both" is incorrect. It gives a meaning here the decision is seen by two set of parties in the same way, But only one party is mentioned i.e. legal observers

B) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility -  Correct

D) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility -  - "who" - is incorrect. Within the modifier it refers to the subject of a sentence (or try He/Him substitution)

E) whom is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

Shishou · Answer

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

A) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
  who v whom : others consider him so it should be whom not who. The structure both .... and.... is not parallel. One part of the parallel structure starts with the verb phrase is seen while the other is a noun

B) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
  fixes the who/whom issue but the problem of parallelism remains 
C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
 fixes the parallel structure both .... and ..... on either side of and we have a descriptive noun that describes the attorney's decision 
D) who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
  the who issue remains here even though the parallelism issue is solved

E) whom is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
  whom is used wrongly here since it isn't the object of anyone's consideration.. the use of also seems to indicate that the decision is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet position

Answer is C

SonGoku · Answer

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

Who is wrong .
idiom error in second part of sentence
 
object whom is fine, but idiom error is not acceptable.

seems correct to me.no idiom error.

who is wrong .
eliminate it

Whom is seen as Vs Whom many consider
C is better than E.
Finally I didnot explain in a reasonable way and i'll happy to see flaws in my reasoning.

Shrinidhi · Answer

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

"Who" refers to preceding verb, which is New york in this case and is incorrect. It should refer to United states attorney so to do that "Whom" is the correct relative pronoun.

That gets us down to choices B,C & E 
All the choices used the idiom Both X and Y correctly ,but choices B & E places it incorrectly making the sentence illogical.  Choice C  uses the Both X & Y idiom at correct position and presents clear meaning i.e most legal observers see it as Both X ....and Y..

C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

exc4libur · Answer

MEANING
A recent decision by the US Attorney is seen by most as both a savvy maneuver and an abrogation of pro responsibility.
Who/Whom consider the US Attorney a contender? Many = object = Whom.

A) "who" ref to subject, here "many" is the object; "both seen…and…an" not parallel and unintended;
B) "both seen…and…an" not parallel and unintended;
D) "who" ref to subject, here "many" is the object;
E) "the decision…is also seen" unintended;

Answer (C)

sampriya · Answer

A)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

B)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

C)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

D)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

E)  whom  is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

in our 5 second scan we can notice the options are between who and whom..whom is used when its used as the object of the sentence and therefore we need to use whom

therefore we are down to B/C/E

option E is wrong as "Whom" is used as a subject with the verb "is"

between B/C

there is a parallelism error : the parallel elements are

B)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility

C)  whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both  a savvy political maneuver   and  an abrogation of professional responsibility

C is therefore correct since "seen by most legal observers as" is common for the parallel elements and should be present before the two-part idiom both X and Y

mykrasovski · Answer

A quick read-through reveals that there is a 3-2 split, i.e.  who  vs  whom . The meaning of the sentence requires  whom , because the part after the first comma is about the US Attorney. Hence, options (A) and (D) can be eliminated instantly.

A)   who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

B)   whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is  both  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
 both  is used incorrectly, because it fails to maintain a proper parallelism, i.e. both A and B.

C)   whom  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as  both   a savvy political maneuver  and  an abrogation of professional responsibility 
 both A and B  works fine here. Best option so far.

D)   who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

E)   whom   is seen  as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as  both  a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility
What does  is seen  part attempt to do?... It is ungrammatical and does not work with  whom .

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 182: Sentence Correction (SC2)

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is both seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility.

A)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is  both seen  by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and an abrogation  of professional responsibility

B) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is  both seen  by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver  and an abrogation  of professional responsibility

C) whom many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

D)  who  many consider a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is seen by most legal observers as  both a  savvy political  maneuver  and  an abrogation  of professional responsibility

E) whom is seen as a leading contender for a cabinet appointment, is also seen by most legal observers as both a savvy political maneuver and an abrogation of professional responsibility

• POE (process of elimination)

Two major splits exist.
 (1) Both X and Y 
-- the U.S. Attorney . . . is both seen . . .
-- the U.S. Attorney . . . is seen as both

(2) who/whom  - within this split, another split exists that involves  whom 
-- who many consider
-- whom many consider
-- whom is considered

• Split #1: BOTH X AND Y

Options A and B: 
  . . . is  both   seen  . . .  and  an  abrogation 
 
X and Y must be parallel. In options A and B,
X (participle phrase) =  seen by most legal observers as a savvy political maneuver 
Y (noun phrase) =  an abrogation (violation) of professional responsibility

Seen  is an irregular past participle (a verbED). It is a verbal.  Seen  is not a verb. Ever. 
 Seen  can be part of a verb, but it is not a standalone or main verb.  Always wrong : He  seen   saw ] frost on the grass.

In options A and B, X and Y are not parallel. Eliminate A and B

• Split #2: who vs. whom

When you see these two words, the first question you should ask is, "What or who is the subject of this sentence?"
One easy way to find the subject is to find a main verb.
In this case, the verb is  consider.

The subject of the sentence is many  . The verb is  consider. 
Relative pronouns refer to the immediately preceding noun (or noun phrase).
The word  who  or  whom  refers to the U.S. Attorney.

Now ask whether the U.S. attorney does the action or receives the action.
If the U.S. attorney does the action (considers), use  who .
If the U.S. attorney receives the action, use  whom .

Many    is the subject (the actor) and the U.S. attorney is the one being acted upon (being considered) 
The U.S. Attorney is the object who receives the action, so we should use  whom.  
Option D incorrectly uses  who . Eliminate D

• Split #3 - WHOM and the missing subject

In option E, in the phrase  whom is seen as a leading contender,   whom  is an  object . (Whom is always an object pronoun.)
Just one problem. No subject exists.
That is, no subject is acting upon this object.
The U.S. attorney is seen as a contender by which people? No subject exists.
Eliminate E.

• The correct answer is C

Option C:  whom many consider a leading contender for ABC, is seen by most legal observers as  both   a  savvy political  maneuver  and  an abrogation  of professional responsibility

--  Both X and Y 
In option C, X and Y are both nouns and thus parallel. 
X = a maneuver
Y = an abrogation

--  whom  correctly is the object of the verb consider
 Whom  many   consider a contender . . . 
Subject: many people | Verb: consider | Object: whom

IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE POE, the notes below are probably not necessary. I would look at the footnote. It's just a FYI, but its content is not well-known. ]

• NOTES

WHO/whom

SUBJECT/OBJECT pronouns

Subject pronouns : I, you, she, he, it, we, they, who
Subject pronouns act. They are doers.

Object pronouns : Me, you, her, him, it, us, them, whom
Object pronouns get acted upon. They receive action. They are "done to." 
Object pronouns also act as the object of a preposition. (Give the present to him.)

Consider  is a verb that needs an object. Rephrase the sentence.

-- In other words, test the object to see whether it IS an object. 
Make an easier sentence.  Many people consider ____ a contender. 
-- If  him  should go in the blank, use  whom . Both  hi m   and  who m   end in M.
-- I f  he  should go in the blank, use  who . Neither  he  nor  who  ends in M. 
(Or: both  he  and  who  end in vowels. I think the "M/no M" is easier than "M/vowel")

Correct : Many people consider   him   a leading contender.
 Wrong : Many people consider   he   a leading contender . . .
-- HIM is correct. The correct pronoun—which, like the word  him , ends with "M"— is WHOM

Other posts in which you can read about  who  and  whom  are
 here,   here.

Two articles that discuss  who  and  whom  are  here  and  here .

CONSIDER X Y  
 X, whom many consider Y 
The verb  consider  requires an object in this sentence.

The most-used idiom is  Consider X, Y 
But  consider to be  is not autmatically wrong.*
See my footnote.

Samantha considers X Y  means that
Samantha assesses the noun, X, and gives the noun a "rating" or rank, which is the Y part.
 
Do not mistake the Y part as the object. 
The Y part  can  be a noun. If Y is a noun, Y is not the object of the verb  considers  but rather just a noun that describes X.
 
We can use  Consider X Y  in two ways:
(1)   considers + noun (X) +  adjective  (Y)
--  I consider him kind, smart, and funny. 
Subject = I (I am the one considering)
Verb = consider
Object = Noun = X = him (Whom am I assessing? HIM.)
Adjective that describes the Object = Y = kind, smart, and funny

(2)   considers + noun (X) + noun (Y)  
-- The students consider the teacher a friend, however exacting or stern she may be. 
(Even if the teacher is demanding or stern or both, the students think of her as a friend.)
Subject = students
Verb = consider
Object = Noun #1 = X = the teacher
Noun #2 = Y = the "rank" that the students have ascribed to X = a friend

We rearrange the words to get a sentence similar to this question:
 The teacher, whom the students consider a friend, can be demanding and stern.

COMMENTS

There are so many excellent answers on this thread! Well done!
The issues tested in this question are fairly easy to sort out because of the question's straightforward splits, but when you face the real test, you who posted will be glad that you can explain the issues presented in this question.

Kudos to all.

** 
  Consider to be  is not automatically wrong!
One official question uses only "consider to be" in all of its answer choices. That official question is ' here. 
A couple of other official questions use consider to be in the non-underlined portion of the prompt.
When someone writes,   "consider to be"   and "consider as" are unidiomatic on the GMAT, ignore the "consider to be" part. That fact may have been true at the time the person posted the comment. If the comment is from late 2017 to the present, then its author is just repeating a belief that no long holds.

TheNightKing · Answer

generis , You are so kind and so helpful! Thank you!

generis · Answer

TheNightKing , thank you!

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

A recent decision made by the United States Attorney for the Southern

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards