how can the federal attorney general be removed

by Wilmer Kshlerin Jr. 9 min read

Technically, no sitting President has ever fired an Attorney General they nominated to office with Senate approval. But President Trump clearly has the power to remove Sessions, based on the Constitution and past legal decisions. And most importantly, he can ask for his resignation.Jul 26, 2017

Is it weird to ask an attorney general to leave office?

Therefore, to Impeach an Attorney General one would only need to introduce and pass Articles of Impeachment in the House and to Remove one would only need to survive a full trial in the Senate and achieve a two thirds majority (presently 67 …

Can the new president elect to keep or remove US Attorneys?

He can resign, the President can fire him, or under Article II he can be impeached and removed. Cabinet members have to be confirmed by the Senate but …

How to file a removal document in federal court?

Aug 27, 2009 · The attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president, and the president can determine that a prosecution would undermine the national security—a subject …

Why was Attorney General DiBiagio removed from office?

Jan 28, 2014 · In virtually every state, the Attorney General can bring lawsuits for violations of state consumer protection or antitrust law. Often the Attorney General can seek both penalties and injunctive relief for itself and restitution for its citizens harmed by the defendant’s alleged wrongful actions. ... Defendants removed the case to federal ...

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Can a US attorney general be impeached?

Attorneys General. While impeachment proceedings against cabinet secretaries is an exceedingly rare event, no office has provoked the ire of the House of Representatives than that of Attorney General. During the first fifth of the 21st century, no less than three Attorneys General have been subjected to the process.

Who can fire US Attorney General?

The President of the United States has the authority to appoint U.S. Attorneys, with the consent of the United States Senate, and the President may remove U.S. Attorneys from office. In the event of a vacancy, the United States Attorney General is authorized to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney.

Who can the President not remove from office?

Congress, the Court ruled, could legally restrict the president's ability to remove anyone except "purely executive officers." Two decades later, after President Dwight Eisenhower dismissed Myron Wiener from the War Claims Commission, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the legal limits to the president's removal powers.

Who can remove inferior officers?

the President
In the absence of specific legislative provision to the contrary, the President may at his discretion remove an inferior officer whose term is limited by statute, 606 or one appointed with the consent of the Senate.

Who is the new ag of usa?

Merrick Garland
United States Attorney General
Incumbent Merrick Garland since March 11, 2021
United States Department of Justice
StyleMr. Attorney General (informal) The Honorable (formal)
Member ofCabinet National Security Council
13 more rows

Who is the head of the Department of Justice 2021?

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was sworn in as the 86th Attorney General of the United States on March 11, 2021. As the nation's chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Garland leads the Justice Department's 115,000 employees, who work across the United States and in more than 50 countries worldwide.May 5, 2022

Can the president dissolve a federal agency?

It permits the president to divide, consolidate, abolish, or create agencies of the U.S. federal government by presidential directive, subject to limited legislative oversight. First granted in 1932, presidential reorganization authority has been extended to nine presidents on 16 separate occasions.

Does the president have the power to remove appointed officials?

The president has the authority to remove his appointees from office, but the heads of independent federal agencies can only be removed for cause.

How can a sitting president be removed from office?

The 25th Amendment is a separate process from impeachment, which allows Congress to remove a sitting president if a majority of the House of Representatives votes that he has committed treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, and a trial in the Senate convicts him.Jan 6, 2021

Can the President remove federal judges?

Federal judges can only be removed through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.

What is the removal power?

Appointment and removal power, in the context of administrative law, refers to the authority of an executive to appoint and remove officials in the various branches vested in its authority to do so.

Can Congress remove agency heads?

If the independent agency exercises any executive powers, such as the enforcement of statutes, Congress cannot take part in removing the agent. If Congress wants to remove an agency official acting in an executive capacity (any of the heads of executive agencies), it must initiate impeachment proceedings.Sep 23, 2021

Who replaced Sampson as Attorney General?

Sampson's replacement as the Attorney General's temporary chief of staff was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Chuck Rosenberg. Rosenberg initiated a DOJ inquiry into possibly inappropriate political considerations in Monica Goodling's hiring practices for civil service staff. Civil service positions are not political appointments and must be made on a nonpartisan basis. In one example, Jeffrey A. Taylor, former interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, tried to hire a new career prosecutor, Seth Adam Meinero, in the fall of 2006. Goodling judged Meinero too "liberal" and declined to approve the hire. Meinero, a Howard University law school graduate who had worked on civil rights cases at the Environmental Protection Agency, was serving as a special assistant prosecutor in Taylor's office. Taylor went around Goodling, and demanded Sampson's approval to make the hire. In another example, Goodling removed an attorney from her job at the Department of Justice because she was rumored to be a lesbian, and, further, blocked the attorney from getting other Justice Department jobs she was qualified for. Rules concerning hiring at the Justice department forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Who was the DOJ attorney general in 2006?

Attorney General Gonzales, in a confidential memorandum dated March 1, 2006, delegated authority to senior DOJ staff Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson to hire and dismiss political appointees and some civil service positions.

Why are emails about the firing of attorneys lost?

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel stated that some of the emails that had involved official correspondence relating to the firing of attorneys may have been lost because they were conducted on Republican party accounts and not stored properly. "Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct." said Stanzel, a White House spokesman. Stonzel said that they could not rule out the possibility that some of the lost emails dealt with the firing of U.S. attorneys. For example, J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Karl Rove communicated with Justice Department officials "concerning the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, according to e-mails released in March, 2007. For that exchange, Jennings, although working at the White House, used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as a political opposition researcher."

Who resigned from the White House?

Officials who resigned. Alberto Gonzales, United States Attorney General, former White House Counsel. Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to the Attorney General. Michael A. Battle, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. Michael Elston, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General.

Why was Kevin Ryan fired?

Kevin Ryan (R) Though described as "loyal to the Bush administration," he was allegedly fired for the possible controversy that negative job performance evaluations might cause if they were released. John McKay (R) Was given a positive job evaluation 7 months before he was fired.

Who has the authority to subpoena the Justice Department?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy stated that Congress has the authority to subpoena Justice Department and White House officials including chief political advisor to the president Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. On March 20, President Bush declared in a press conference that his aides would not testify under oath on the matter if subpoenaed by Congress. Bush explained his position saying,

Who called for Gonzales resignation?

A number of members of both houses of Congress publicly said Gonzales should resign, or be fired by Bush. On March 14, 2007, Senator John E. Sununu ( R, New Hampshire) became the first Republican lawmaker to call for Gonzales' resignation. Sununu cited not only the controversial firings but growing concern over the use of the USA PATRIOT Act and misuse of national security letters by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Calls for his ousting intensified after his testimony on April 19, 2007. By May 16, at least twenty-two Senators and seven Members of the House of Representatives — including Senators Hillary Clinton ( D, New York) and Mark Pryor ( D, Arkansas )— had called for Gonzales' resignation.

How long does it take to remove a case from federal court?

Once a case is served, the defendant has 30 days to remove it to federal court. If a case is not initially removable, but becomes removable later —due to amendment, joinder, or otherwise—this typically triggers the 30-day deadline from the date of the operative event.

What is the unanimity rule?

Unanimity rule. Unanimous consent is a procedural requirement and failure to comply with this rule may result in the case being remanded to state court. While this rule requires every served defendant to consent to removal, there is a circuit split on how consent can be expressed.

Is a corporation a citizen of the state?

Corporation s are only citizens of the state in which they are incorporated or have their principal place of business; maintaining a registered agent within the state is not enough. The citizenship of an LLC requires evaluating the citizenship of each of its members. Improper or fraudulent joinder.

What is unanimous consent?

Unanimous consent is a procedural requirement and failure to comply with this rule may result in the case being remanded to state court. While this rule requires every served defendant to consent to removal, there is a circuit split on how consent can be expressed.

What does "domicile" mean in business?

Domicile. Accurately identify the state or states where all parties are domiciled for purposes of evaluating diversity. Corporations are only citizens of the state in which they are incorporated or have their principal place of business; maintaining a registered agent within the state is not enough.

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Overview

Reactions and congressional investigation

The initial reaction was from the senators of the affected states. In a letter to Gonzales on January 9, 2007, Senators Feinstein (D, California) and Leahy (D, Vermont; Chair of the Committee) of the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concern that the confirmation process for U.S. attorneys would be bypassed, and on January 11, they, together with Senator Pryor (D, Arkansas), introduced legislation "to prevent circumvention of the Senate's constitutional prerogative to con…

Issues in brief

By tradition, all U.S. Attorneys are asked to resign at the start of a new administration. The new President may elect to keep or remove any U.S. Attorney. They are traditionally replaced collectively only at the start of a new White House administration. U.S. Attorneys hold a political office, in which the President nominates candidates to office and the Senate confirms, and consequently, they serve at the pleasure of the President. When a new President is from a differ…

Fallout

By April 2007, there was some speculation that the dismissal of the US attorneys might affect cases of public corruption and voter fraud. According to the National Law Journal,
Just the appearance of political influence in cases related to those firings, combined with the recent, unusual reversal of a federal public corruption convi…

Replacement of the U.S. Attorneys

On January 6, 2005, Colin Newman, an assistant in the White House counsels office, wrote to David Leitch stating, "Karl Rovestopped by to ask you (roughly quoting) 'how we planned to proceed regarding U.S. Attorneys, whether we were going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all and accept only some of them or selectively replace them, etc.'". The email was then forwarded to Kyle …

Aftermath

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel stated that some of the emails that had involved official correspondence relating to the firing of attorneys may have been lost because they were conducted on Republican party accounts and not stored properly. "Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct." said Stanzel, a White House spokesman. Stonzel said that they could not rule out the possibility …

See also

• 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys
• List of federal political scandals in the United States
• Don Siegelman
• Cyril Wecht

Notes

1. ^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. ^ "Although Bush and President Bill Clinton each dismissed nearly all U.S. attorneys upon taking office, legal experts and former prosecutors say the firing of a large number of prosecutors in the middle of a term appears to be unprecedented and threatens the independence of prosecutors." Gonzales: 'Mistakes Were Made' The Washington Post, March 14, 2007