To anyone in the know within the Washington Beltway, Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting the resignation of the remaining 46 U.S. attorneys is no surprise. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, a series of unknown government leaks have been suspected from various agencies, including the DOJ.
Sessions, who has been a victim of some of the leaks, has now taken action to stop them. He describes Friday’s announcement as a “uniform transition.” He explained it as something done in prior transitions, but nobody is buying that. The Trump people want Trump people.
A DOJ spokeswoman said, “Until the new U.S. Attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. Attorney’s Offices will continue the great work of the Department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders.” That can be translated as, “The sooner the better.”
It is true, maybe even customary, that the country’s 93 U.S. attorneys leave their positions once a new president is in office. At least that has been the tradition over the past several decades. With the alarming amount of high level leaks in the past five weeks, it came as little surprise Sessions wanted his own people asap.
During the Obama administration, only one political appointee of President George W. Bush, Rod Rosenstein of Maryland, remained on the job for the entire eight years. He is the current nominee for deputy attorney general.
It would be interesting to know how Rosenstein held on as a lone survivor. He is either the greatest back-slapper Washington has ever seen, or maybe he has the goods on those who could fire him.
