William Barr | |
---|---|
Official portrait, 2019 | |
77th and 85th United States Attorney General | |
In office February 14, 2019 – December 23, 2020 | |
President | Donald Trump |
The 85th and current United States Attorney General is William Barr, appointed by President Donald J. Trump. Click to see full answer. In this regard, who was the attorney general when Trump took office?
The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States . Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, then appointed with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.
The most recently serving attorney general to die was Janet Reno on November 7, 2016 (served 1993–2001, born 1938). U.S.C. Title 28, §508 establishes the first two positions in the line of succession, while allowing the attorney general to designate other high-ranking officers of the Department of Justice as subsequent successors.
Richard Donoghue, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will take over Rosen’s role as the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Trump wrote.
General Merrick B. GarlandMeet the Attorney General Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was sworn in as the 86th Attorney General of the United States on March 11, 2021.
Merrick GarlandList of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentEdward Hirsch Levi1975-1977William Bart Saxbe1974-1975Elliot Lee Richardson197382 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.
43 states have an elected attorney general. Elected attorneys general serve a four-year term, except in Vermont, where the term is two years. Seven states do not popularly elect an attorney general. In Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Wyoming, the attorney general is a gubernatorial appointee.
Gerson was fourth in the line of succession at the Justice Department, but other senior DOJ officials had already resigned.[14] Janet Reno, President Clinton's nominee for attorney general, was confirmed on March 12,[15]and he resigned the same day.
The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United Stateson all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
Presidential transition[edit] It is the practice for the attorney general, along with the other Cabinet secretaries and high-level political appointees of the President, to tender a resignation with effect on the Inauguration Day(January 20) of a new president.
The title "attorney general" is an example of a noun (attorney) followed by a postpositive adjective(general).[8]". General" is a description of the type of attorney, not a title or rank in itself (as it would be in the military).[8]
As the chief law enforcement officer for the United States and career public servant, Attorney General Garland leads the Department of Justice’s 115,000 employees dedicated to the fair and impartial administration of justice on behalf of the American people.
He served as Chief Judge from February 12, 2013 until February 11, 2020 and remained on the bench until his confirmation as Attorney General. In addition to being a published author in the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal, Attorney General Garland has taught as a professor at Harvard Law School, served as the president of the Board ...
He returned to the Department of Justice as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1992. After briefly returning to Arnold & Porter in 1992, Attorney General Garland continued his career in public service as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division.
Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, will depart the Trump administration before Christmas, President Donald Trump said. The widely anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came just moments after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump was formalized by the Electoral College.
Richard Donoghue , former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will take over Rosen’s role as the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Trump wrote.
Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, will leave office before Christmas, President Donald Trump said Monday. The widely anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came just moments after President-elect Joe Biden ’s victory over Trump was formalized by the Electoral College.
William Barr takes a seat after a break in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be attorney general of the United States on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2019. Yuri Gripas | Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Barr had worked to conceal the probes involving Hunter Biden’s business dealings and finances during the election season, despite pressure from Trump and Republicans seeking information on the Democratic nominee’s son.
Barr also faced scrutiny over his handling of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as the termination of Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At times, however, Barr publicly pushed back on Trump.
Sonny Perdue. On January 18, 2017, Sonny Perdue, former governor of Georgia, was selected to be the Secretary of Agriculture. On April 24, 2017, Perdue was confirmed by the Senate in an 87–11 vote. He served until the end of the Trump administration, on January 20, 2021.
Trump announced the selection of investment banker Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury on November 30, 2016. The New York Times noted that Mnuchin's selection was surprising, since Trump had attacked the banking industry and Goldman Sachs during the campaign. Mnuchin is the third Goldman alumnus to serve as treasury secretary.
One of Donald Trump's first acts as president was the approval of Mattis's waiver to become Secretary of Defense. After being confirmed by the Senate on the evening of January 20, 2017, by a vote of 98–1, Mattis was sworn in by Vice President Pence on the same evening.
Despite being nominated promptly during the transition period, most cabinet members were unable to take office on Inauguration Day because of delays in the formal confirmation process. By February 8, 2017, President Trump had fewer cabinet nominees confirmed than any prior president two weeks into his mandate, except George Washington. Part of the lateness was ascribed to opposition by Senate Democrats and part to delays in submitting background-check paperwork. The final initial Cabinet member to take office, Robert Lighthizer, took office as U.S. Trade Representative on May 11, 2017, more than four months after his nomination.
On February 27, 2017, he was confirmed by the United States Senate in a 72–27 vote. He assumed office on February 28, 2017, and left office at the end of the Trump administration.
On February 22, 2019, Ambassador Kelly Craft was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Nikki Haley, who had resigned two months prior, as his envoy to the United Nations. Heather Nauert, reportedly the first choice, had withdrawn herself from consideration. Craft was confirmed on July 31, 2019.
The President nominated Former Defense Undersecretary and VA Acting Secretary Robert Wilkie on May 18, 2018, to replace Shulkin. Wilkie was confirmed by the Senate on July 23, 2018, with an 86–9 vote. He served until the end of Trump's term.
Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was named as acting attorney general. Spicer’s statement said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice” by refusing to defend Trump’s order. The statement added that Yates, a career prosecutor whom Trump named as acting attorney general, is “weak on borders ...
Trump’s administration made the decision to appoint Yates as acting attorney general as well as to allow top federal prosecutors around the country who had been appointed by Obama to continue serving. Not long after the White House’s announcement, there was a flurry of activity on the fourth floor of the Justice Department building, ...
On January 30, 2017, Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates issued a memorandum barring Department of Justice Attorney’s from presenting arguments in defense of the President’s January 27, 2017, Executive Order entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.”.
This law prohibits anyone who "incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto." In the first place, this law has almost never been invoked. The leading precedent on the statute comes from a case from 1863!
This law bans "attempts to deprive or defraud residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by . [the] tabulation of ballots known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent." Under this theory, by instructing his attorney general to say there was fraud in Georgia, Trump committed this crime.
This law makes it a crime to corruptly obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding or attempt to do so. Once more, the issue would be intent -- here reflected in the word "corruptly." In his January 6 speech, Trump encouraged the crowd to march to Capitol Hill but he did not explicitly encourage violence.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. The president himself is explicitly exempt from the strictures of the Hatch Act, but could be charged with the provision that makes it "unlawful for any person to intimidate, threaten, command, or coerce" a federal employee to "engage in ...
This broad provision, much loved by prosecutors, makes it a crime to "conspire to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States." The first part of this law runs into the same problem as the specific statutes noted above -- that it's difficult to prove an underlying crime.
The announcement of the attorney general, along with other senior leaders of the Justice Department, is expected to be made as soon as Thursday as Biden moves closer to filling the remaining seats in his Cabinet before assuming power on January 20.
Obama nominated Garland to the Supreme Court after a vacancy was created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. But Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, refused for months to hold confirmation hearings or the required vote in the chamber.
Garland was chosen by Biden for attorney general over former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and former acting attorney general Sally Yates, the two other finalists for the position.
Clarke said at the same news conference that whoever is selected as attorney general “must have a clear and bold record when it comes to civil rights and racial justice.”. Sharpton responded to the Garland pick with a skeptical statement and asked for a meeting with the nominee.
Sharpton said mentioned as potential picks former Massachusetts Gov. De val Patrick and Tony West, the senior vice president and chief legal officer at Uber who was previously the associate attorney general of the United States under the Obama administration.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris met last month with civil rights leaders and members of the NAACP, who have been pressuring Biden to diversify his Cabinet and create a position within the White House for a civil rights czar.
US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of Califor nia, speaks at her weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2021.
It is the practice for the attorney general, along with the other Cabinet secretaries and high-level political appointees of the President, to tender a resignation with effect on the Inauguration Day (January 20) of a new president. The deputy attorney general is also expected to tender a resignation, but is commonly requested to stay on and act as the attorney general pending the confirmation by the Senate of the new attorney general.
Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 which, among other things, established the Office of the Attorney General. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the president of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments". Some of these duties have since been transferred to the U…
U.S.C. Title 28, §508 establishes the first two positions in the line of succession, while allowing the attorney general to designate other high-ranking officers of the Department of Justice as subsequent successors. Furthermore, an Executive Order defines subsequent positions, the most recent from March 31, 2017, signed by President Donald Trump. The current line of succession is:
1. United States Deputy Attorney General
• Executive Order 13787 for "Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice"