Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., wants to know why President Trump has personally interviewed candidates for U.S. attorney, as well as why he has not received more information from the Department of Justice on the resignation of Dana Boente, who was acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division.
In a letter dated last week but released this week, Coons wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, requesting a hearing “based on a series of events that leave me concerned that President Trump does not respect the important boundaries between politics and the prosecutorial decisions of US Attorneys within the Department of Justice.”
Coons also says he is concerned over the “sudden nature” of Boente’s resignation last month.
In mid-October, CNN reported Trump had met with at least three candidates for U.S. attorney positions in New York and Washington. Meeting with a president is rare for U.S. attorney candidates. Furthermore, the two cities have held many private Trump events in the past, giving the local U.S. attorney oversight into investigations into the president and his associates.
Then, in late October, Boente left his post with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which was overseeing the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 president election.
“Mr. Boente’s resignation is merely the latest in a series of events that have left me concerned that the President does not comply with norms honoring the independence of the Department of Justice, which is vital to our democratic system of government,” Coons wrote. “I believe this pattern of events warrants the scrupulous oversight of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
