Lawyers who have filled political appointee positions in the Trump administration have been pursued by doubts about their qualifications or caliber. In 2018, a justice department staffer was made acting attorney general, the department’s top job.
(CNN) Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark nearly convinced then-President Donald Trump to remove then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and use the Department of Justice to undo Georgia's election results, The New York Times reported Friday.
Senator Lindsey Graham confirmed to reporters Thursday that South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers will join the Trump legal team as the "anchor tenant." So, who is Butch Bowers?
AppointmentsOfficeNomineeAssumed officeAttorney GeneralWilliam BarrFebruary 14, 2019 (Confirmed February 14, 2019, 54–45)Deputy Attorney GeneralJeffrey A. RosenMay 22, 2019 (Confirmed May 16, 2019, 52–45)Associate Attorney GeneralClaire McCusker MurrayMay 14, 2019Solicitor GeneralJeff WallJuly 3, 202036 more rows
Rod Jay Rosenstein (/ˈroʊzənˌstaɪn/; born January 13, 1965) is an American attorney who served as the 37th United States deputy attorney general from April 2017 until May 2019.
United States Attorney GeneralIncumbent Merrick Garland since March 11, 2021United States Department of JusticeStyleMr. Attorney General (informal) The Honorable (formal)Member ofCabinet National Security Council13 more rows
In May 2019 he moved to the Department of Justice as deputy attorney general, and from December 24, 2020, to January 20, 2021, as acting attorney general. As of July 2021 he is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Matt Zapotosky of The Washington Post tweeted the news. BREAKING: Rod Rosenstein says at @Newseum event that both common pronunciations of his last name are acceptable. He pronounces it "stine," with a long i, but some family members pronounce it "steen," with a long e.
List of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentEric Holder2009-2015Michael B. Mukasey2007-2009Alberto R. Gonzales2005-200782 more rows
Attorney General Merrick B. GarlandAttorney 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.
93 United States AttorneysA U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: BASIC FACTS There are currently 93 United States Attorneys: one for each of the 94 federal judicial districts, except for Guam and the Northern Marianas, where a single U.S. Attorney serves both districts.
Barr's credentials may make him a safer bet for confirmation than some of Mr. Trump's other candidates. However, some in the White House worried that the 68-year-old Barr is too moderate and close to the GOP establishment to be an effective pick.
Mr. Trump and Barr are said to not know each other all that well. But since Mr. Trump took office, Barr has emerged as a sometimes defender of the president in the press.
Barr ultimately backed away from the plan to install Carpenito and allowed the career first assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Audrey Strauss, to take the post on an acting basis.
Last June, Barr made an awkward attempt to oust the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, and replace him on an acting basis with the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, who was viewed as more of a Trump loyalist.
U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine said on his office’s website that he was named as the acting U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Monday “by written order of the President.”.
Georgia election officials have rebutted Trump’s claims in detail. In addition, former Attorney General Bill Barr said late last year that he saw no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome of the election.
While Berman was tapped by the administration to take the job on an acting basis, he was never formally nominated to the post. The attempted reshuffle prompted outrage from prosecutors in Berman’s office, some of whom had investigated Trump, his companies and his allies over campaign finance allegations and other issues.
Barr’s long career in public life led some justice department veterans to welcome his nomination as attorney general in late 2018, given concerns about who else Trump might pick.
Donald Trump and William Barr: in lockstep? Photograph: The Washington Post via Getty Images
The fear is that Barr’s competence has flipped from virtue to vice owing to a quality that he appears to lack or have lost: judgment in the face of an untethered president.
A cardboard cutout of William Barr is seen as protesters hold signs which read “Barr Coverup,” following the release of the Mueller report on 18 April 2019. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters.
In August, Barr declined to recuse himself from a justice department review of a whistleblower complaint charging Trump with soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election, despite his being named in the report. The review found no wrongdoing by the president, who survived impeachment over the matter.
But no previous action by Barr provoked such a crisis as his intervention this week in the Stone case.
It was unclear whether Barr issued his direction before or after a Trump tweet blasting the case as “a horrible and very unfair situation” and a “miscarriage of justice”. In any event, the US attorney, a hand-picked Barr ally, entered a new recommendation for a lighter sentence and the four career prosecutors who signed the original recommendation withdrew from the case in apparent protest.
Among those the Biden administration may keep for a while, according to people briefed on the matter, are Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney in Washington, DC, who is overseeing the sprawling probe of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
During his second time as the US attorney, Huber was tasked by Sessions to reexamine a previous Justice Department investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's business dealings and the Clinton Foundation.
The changeover of US attorneys is routine but is often fraught with political overtones. In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 Obama-appointed US attorneys to submit their resignations. A handful were allowed to stay on for a brief period, but most had to leave immediately.
Some high-profile US attorneys who had not resigned ahead of Biden's inauguration included US Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers, Utah US Attorney John Huber and Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady.
Graham said he needs time to question Garland on current investigations and wrote a letter on Tuesday to Wilkinson urging him "not to interfere in or call off" the investigations.
A number of acting US attorneys who aren't Senate confirmed or who were appointed by the courts are expected to remain in their posts until a Biden appointee is approved by the Senate, prosecutors were told Tuesday.