US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: ANOTHER PRIME EXAMPLE OF AN INEPT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

…The new Attorney General Session, greeting the Head of the FBI, James Comey

 

These are the examples of how NOT to run a US Agency.

 

As with all the other screw-ups of the new president, the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is doing his best to maintain that level of ineptness.

 

As a prime example of “how not to run an agency,” last month, AG Sessions told the dozens of remaining Obama administration US attorneys to submit their resignations immediately.  Forty seven US attorneys had already left,  This request is very normal when the office of the president changes parties.  But as of today, none of these US attorneys have been replaced, that is not a normal condition.

 

Instead of getting his new department up to efficient, the new AG is making over-aggressive law enforcement his top priority.  He is directing his federal prosecutors across the country to crack down on all illegal immigrants and “use every tool” they have to go after violent criminals and drug traffickers.  But the attorney general does not have a single US attorney in place to lead this “tough-on-crime” effort across the country.

 

It’s pretty amazing to say you are being “tough on crime”, while you have 93 unfilled US attorney positions.  And this is just one more important group among the hundreds of critical Trump administration jobs that remain open.

 

Sessions is also without the heads of his most important Justice department units including the Civil Rights, Criminal, and National Security divisions.  Yes he’s running without his “A Team” as he tries to reshape the highly important and supposedly independent Justice Department.

 

When asked Tuesday about the vacancies, as he opened a meeting with federal law enforcement officials, Sessions said, “We really need to work hard at that.”   Ya think…?

 

This approach is in stark contrast to both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, who "gradually eased out the previous administration’s US attorneys" while Justice officials sought new ones.

 

Sessions said that until he has his replacements, “career acting US attorneys respond pretty well to presidential leadership.”

 

But former Justice Department officials say that “acting US attorneys” do not operate with the same authority as a confirmed US attorney when interacting with US police chiefs and other law enforcement executives.

 

“It’s like trying to win a baseball game with your 2^nd and 3^rd string players on the field,” said former assistant attorney general Ronald Weich, who ran the Justice Department’s Legislative Affairs Division during Obama’s first term.

 

“There are human beings occupying each of those seats,” Weich, now dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, said of the interim officials. “But that’s not the same as having appointed and confirmed officials who represent the priorities of the administration. And this administration is clearly way behind in achieving that goal.”

Filling these vacancies has also been complicated by Sessions not having his second-highest-ranking official in place. Rod J. Rosenstein, nominated for deputy attorney general. He is the person who normally runs the Justice Department’s day-to-day business.  But he is still not on board, although he is expected to be confirmed soon by the Senate. Traditionally, the deputy attorney general also helps to select the many US attorneys.

 

Rosenstein, who served as US attorney for Maryland, has also been designated, upon his confirmation, to take on the responsibility of overseeing the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.  In addition, he is to oversee if there were any links between Russian officials and Trump associates.  This is occurring because Sessions was forced to recuse himself.  Of course, this important case just continues to go stone-cold as the Justice department continues to attempt to run without it’s needed management team.  (And many on the hill are saying this delay is also helping the president's case with the Russians.)

 

Rachel Brand has been nominated for the department’s third-highest position as associate attorney general. But she has also not been confirmed.

 

By March of Obama’s first year in office, the Senate had confirmed the deputy and associate attorneys general, along with the solicitor general (which position today is also open). The Senate had also confirmed an assistant attorney general for the national security division.

 

When Obama’s first attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., launched an ambitious plan to reform the criminal-justice system, it was the US attorneys on the ground who were in charge of carrying out his plan to stop charging low-level nonviolent drug offenders with offenses that imposed severe mandatory sentences. Now, Sessions is taking steps toward reversing that policy.  But he is attempting that without his top prosecutors being nominated or confirmed.

 

Sessions has also created a task force on crime reduction, and one of his first actions was to send a memo last month to his acting US attorneys and assistant US attorneys directing them to investigate and prosecute the most violent offenders in each district. On April 11, he traveled to Nogales, Ariz., where he directed his 5,904 federal prosecutors to make illegal immigration cases­­ a higher priority and work to bring felony charges against those who cross the border illegally.

 

The attorney general will soon fly to Texas and California to meet with law enforcement officials about his main priorities. But, until he gets his US attorneys on board, Sessions will be hampered in moving forward with any new policies.  “An acting US attorney doesn’t speak with the same authority to a police chief or to a local prosecutor as a Senate-confirmed US attorney does,” said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman in the Obama administration. “If you’re a Democrat, you’re probably happy to have these positions filled by in-house career officials because they’re less likely to pursue some of the policies that Jeff Sessions supports.  But if you’re a supporter of the president, you probably want them to move on those positions that support the president.”

However, this president himself still has hundreds of open positions throughout his new administration.

 

The US attorney process could also be delayed many more months because of what is known as the “blue slip” process in Congress, which dates to the early 1900s.

 

Traditionally, the administration consults with the senators of each state before choosing US attorneys. Sessions said the Justice Department will ask for help from Congress and “a number of names they are going over now.” The Senate Judiciary Committee sends a blue piece of paper to each senator to voice their approval or disapproval of a US attorney nominee from their home state.

 

Attorney General Sessions said Tuesday that the US attorney process “does take some months and has traditionally,” but it has never been in the situation it is in today.  It is important to remember that Sessions himself was asked to resign as the US attorney for Alabama in March 1993 by President Bill Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, who, like Sessions, had asked all her US attorneys to resign.

 

This is all just more examples how the American public is not being properly represented by the new Trump administration.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017