The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee decried President Trump’s decision to dismiss all 46 hold-over U.S. attorneys from the Obama administration, saying the decision could compromise the independence of future prosecutors and potentially disrupt important cases.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said late Friday afternoon she was surprised that the attorneys were “abruptly fired” earlier in the day and argued that it couldn’t come at a worse time after Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself in any probe involving Russian ties to the Trump campaign and administration.
“At a time when Attorney General Sessions has recused himself from major investigations into the Trump campaign, the independence of federal prosecutors could not be more important,” she said in a statement. “That’s why many of us have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.”
Sessions on Friday asked all the remaining U.S. attorneys appointed by President Obama to resign in order to ensure a “uniform transition.” The call for the mass resignations came just days after Sessions sent a memo to all of the department’s prosecutors asking them to make fighting violent crime a priority.
Feinstein said the decision to fire the 46 prosecutors was in direct contradiction to assurances she received from White House special counsel Dan McGahn.
“In January, I met with Vice President Pence and White House Counsel Donald McGahn and asked specifically whether all U.S. attorneys would be fired at once,” she said. “Mr. McGahn told me that the transition would be done in an orderly fashion to preserve continuity. Clearly this is not the case.”
“I’m very concerned about the effect of this sudden and unexpected decision on federal law enforcement,” she added.
The White House and Feinstein also offered polar opposite views on the precedent for mass U.S. attorney firings at the beginning of administrations.
Sessions’ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores in a statement said both the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations made similar requests at the beginning of their administrations. Feinstein said the usual practice under previous administrations is to allow U.S. attorneys to leave gradually as their replacements are chosen.
“This was done to protect the independence of our prosecutors and avoid disrupting ongoing federal cases,” she said.
In 2006, President George W. Bush ignited a Congressional firestorm by ordering a midterm dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys many of them in the middle of sensitive ethics cases against Republican politicians.
