But there's more to this one: Boente , like Bharara, was in a position to investigate the president when Trump decided unexpectedly to fire him.
Trump did not, however , replace literally all of the Obama-era U.S. Attorneys: Dana Boente was allowed to stay on. Late last week, as NBC News reported, that changed, too.
Dana Boente, in other words, has been at the center of a legal/political hurricane, and from what we know, he did not want to leave his post. Trump ousted him anyway.
Dana Boente is the Acting Attorney General of the United States . But who is he? The 62-year-old was thrust into the national spotlight on Monday night when President Donald Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting attorney general and a holdover from the Obama administration.
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Boente "one of the Justice Department's consummate utility players" when he took the oath in the Eastern District in 2015, according to the Washington Post. "He is that most reliable middle child, the one you could always count on to be there for you," Lynch said.
He got a B.A., MBA, and J.D. from St. Louis University. Boente was an Eagle Scout. In 2015, Boente told the Senate Judiciary Committee how he spent his time: "From 1984 to 2005, my practice was primarily devoted to the investigation and prosecution of federal criminal offenses.
In his statement on the firing, President Trump called Yates "weak on borders" and said she had "betrayed the Justice Department" and dissed her as an "Obama" AG. In fact, Yates had joined the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta in 2004, when President George W. Bush was in office, and subsequently led the prosecution of Eric Rudolph, ...
She was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Obama and then elevated to be Deputy Attorney General. The Trump administration asked Yates to remain at Justice until its nominee, Sessions, could be sworn in.
His tenure may be short-lived; Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is scheduled to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday morning, although in light of the Yates dramatic firing that vote could well be delayed. Boente is a widely respected prosecutor, who was tapped by President Obama to become the U.S. Attorney in the fall of 2015.
In all likelihood Boente will return to being the U.S. Attorney full time once an Attorney General is appointed. Whether a new Trump attorney general might replace Boente, who like all U.S. Attorneys serves at the pleasure of the president, is unclear.
He was appointed by President Donald Trump as Acting Attorney General on January 30, 2017, after Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was dismissed by Trump earlier that evening. When Jeff Sessions was confirmed and sworn in as Attorney General on February 9, 2017, Boente became Acting Deputy Attorney General. Also on February 9, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13775 to replace Obama's EO, an action which modified the order of succession to add Boente to the list.
On January 23, 2018, Boente was named general counsel to the FBI by the director Christopher A. Wray, filling the vacancy after James Baker 's reassignment to another part of the bureau.
He also served as acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice. On October 27, 2017 , Boente announced he would resign from the Department of Justice after a successor is in place.
On January 23, 2018, Boente was named general counsel to the FBI by Director Christopher Wray, filling the vacancy after James Baker's reassignment to another part of the bureau. On May 29, 2020, Boente resigned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, effective June 30.
Sessions recused himself from all matters pertaining to American presidential campaigns because of revelations that he had communications with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 United States presidential election , Boente was designated to perform the functions of the Attorney General with respect to campaign issues until the permanent deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, was confirmed and sworn into office which took place on April 25, 2017.