Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson in a call Monday night called for U.S. Attorney David Weiss to stay in Delaware, where he oversees the tax investigation of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. John Durham, appointed as special counsel by former Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, will also continue his work, but he is expected to resign as U.S. Attorney in Connecticut, the official said. of Justice said.
The resignation request is expected to apply to 56 U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump by the Senate.
Justice officials have scheduled a call with U.S. attorneys across the country to discuss a transition that is expected to take weeks. The Justice official did not say when the resignations will take effect.
The conversion of American lawyers is routine, but is often fraught with political tone. In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 U.S. attorneys appointed by Obama to file their resignations. A handful were allowed to stay on for a short while, but most had to leave immediately.
Distrust over the appointment of the Trump era has led the Biden government to appoint a Justice Department official as acting attorney general while he waits for U.S. Senate President Merrick Garland, the presidential nominee, confirmed to lead the department.
Garland’s confirmation hearing is expected to begin on February 8, but it has been delayed by former legal committee chairwoman Lindsey Graham, who until this week when Democrats formally took control of the Senate, was opposed to a speedy hearing on Garland’s hearing. to move.
Graham said he needed time to question Garland about the current investigations, and wrote a letter to Wilkinson on Tuesday urging him to “not interfere or eliminate the investigation.”
Of the 94 U.S. attorneys serving in districts across the country, 25 serve in acting positions after some Trump appointments resigned before Biden’s inauguration.
According to people informed about this, the Biden government may continue for a while, is Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney in Washington, DC, overseeing the extensive investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Sherwin is a career prosecutor from Miami, but was installed in DC by former Attorney General William Barr, and among the options discussed by Biden administration officials is to let him continue to lead the resurrection investigation, perhaps from the headquarters of Justice, while making room for Biden’s own appointed in the DC office.
Less certain is how long acting U.S. attorneys in New York City will remain in office: Seth DuCharme in Brooklyn and Audrey Strauss in Manhattan.
Some well-known U.S. attorneys who did not resign before Biden’s inauguration included the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, David DeVillers, the U.S. Attorney John Huber of Utah, and the U.S. Attorney for Pittsburgh, Scott Brady.
Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown has made it clear to a local news agency that DeVillers will be replaced and, according to Cleveland.com, has called for a resumption. DeVillers is currently overseeing two high-profile corruption investigations involving a former Republican lawmaker and Cincinnati councilors, including a Democrat.
Huber was first appointed by former President Barack Obama and then re-appointed by Trump. During his second term as U.S. Attorney, Huber was instructed by Sessions to investigate a previous investigation into the business venture of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. Huber ended his investigation and concluded that there was no reason to reopen the investigation, a decision that irritated Barr, according to people informed about it.
Barr has instructed Brady to review claims related to Ukraine and the Biden family, through Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The move was initially seen by Justice officials as a way to keep Giuliani’s dubious allegations – which Barr publicly questioned – from other Justice Department matters.
But Brady officials accepted the job, say former Justice Department officials, and insisted on taking investigative steps that led to internal clashes with the FBI and others. The status of Brady’s efforts to Ukraine remains unclear.
This story and its headline have been updated with more reporting.
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