Attorney General Jeff Sessions Demands Resignations Of All 46 Remaining Obama-Appointed US Attorneys

The Association Press reports:



Attorney General Jeff Sessions is seeking the resignations of 46 United States attorneys who were appointed during prior presidential administrations, the Justice Department said Friday. Many of the federal prosecutors who were nominated by former president Barack Obama have already left their positions, but the nearly four dozen who stayed on in the first weeks of the Trump administration have been asked to leave “in order to ensure a uniform transition,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores 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,” she said in a statement.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday that she was surprised by Sessions’ action. “Under previous administrations, orderly transitions allowed U.S. attorneys to leave gradually as their replacements were chosen,” the senator said in a statement. “This was done to protect the independence of our prosecutors and avoid disrupting ongoing federal cases.”