Senate confirms US attorneys blocked by Vance over DOJ ‘politicization’

The Senate worked around Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) blanket hold on Justice Department nominees on Friday with the confirmation of two U.S. attorneys.

Tara McGrath and Todd Gee, who will serve as the top law enforcement officers for the southern districts of California and Mississippi, respectively, were confirmed in bipartisan votes, though McGrath’s margins were narrow.

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Both advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year by voice vote, but Vance opposed swift consideration of their nominations on the Senate floor over what he and other Republicans consider to be the “politicized” prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

Two days earlier, Vance blocked a request by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to move their nominations as part of a batch of four but indicated he would support stand-alone votes.

McGrath, who will oversee one of the busiest districts in the country due to the volume of drug and human smuggling at the southern border, was confirmed 52-37, while the Senate voted 82-8 for Gee.

Durbin celebrated their confirmation in a Friday statement aimed squarely at Vance, who since June has pledged to grind the Justice Department to a halt with his holds.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

“Mr. Gee’s and Ms. McGrath’s confirmations are a welcome breakthrough in the logjam caused by Sen. Vance’s misguided hold on Justice Department nominees,” Durbin said. “These two public servants will serve with integrity and ensure justice for their respective districts, prosecuting violent criminals and protecting our communities from drug traffickers, gun violence, terrorism, and other crimes.”

“If Sen. Vance stands by his campaign promise to ‘fight the criminals, not the cops,’ he’d stop forcing the Senate to engage in procedural gymnastics and swiftly confirm top federal law enforcement officers,” he added.

Vance has made clear his blockade is not directed at any particular nominee but instead views the hold as a stand against the prosecution of Trump, who faces two federal investigations, one into his handling of classified documents and another into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump is the front-runner to challenge President Joe Biden in next year’s presidential election.

The senator is not the only one to place a hold on Biden nominees. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) blockade on Pentagon nominees over its abortion policy has ensnared some 300 high-ranking officers. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), the chairmen of the Senate’s health and energy committees, have pursued blanket holds of their own over policy disputes.

But Durbin notes that holds were until recently rare for U.S. attorneys. Ordinarily, they are considered in batches by voice vote so as to avoid burning valuable time on the Senate floor.

Democrats faced similar opposition from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in the last Congress, in part over the Justice Department’s handling of Black Lives Matter protests.

Following the confirmation votes, Durbin took to the Senate floor to make another request for unanimous consent on two further U.S. attorney nominees, Rebecca Lutzko and April Perry, only for Vance to block them again.

Vance, among the 37 Republicans who voted against McGrath’s nomination, also took issue with Perry in a floor speech Friday, arguing she had “rubber-stamped” the “pretty unethical behavior” of Kim Foxx, Chicago’s top prosecutor, in her time assisting with the prosecution of Jussie Smollett.

But he spent the remainder of his remarks centering his objections on the Justice Department’s conduct.

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“This is crazy, banana republic stuff, and I will not stand for it,” Vance said, demanding that each nominee go through regular order and a stand-alone vote. “I will continue to hold these nominations. I will continue to push back against the politicization of justice.”

“Because of the corruption of Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice, it’s what I ask with this nominee and with any in the future,” he added.