About thirty days into his presidency, President Joe Biden asked all Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys to resign. Trump allies now expect that the replacements who filed in thereafter may resign before the president-elect even takes office.
Biden’s Department of Justice ordered nearly all remaining Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys to hand in their resignation in February 2021. Prior to that, in March 2017, Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys were asked to resign immediately. Heading into Trump’s second administration, allies of the president-elect told the Daily Caller that they expect something similar to happen, with U.S. attorneys resigning before the 47th president can clean house.
“Trump can replace all those attorneys. However, as is custom, many may resign themselves ahead of time, or at least offer their resignation,” Mike Davis, a Trump-aligned lawyer and founder of the Article III Project, told the Caller.
Career DOJ lawyers must be fully committed to implementing President Trump’s policies or they should leave or be fired. Why do I keep raising this? Because there are several examples (below) of career staff sabotaging cases they disagreed with in the first Trump Administration.…
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) November 13, 2024
The removal of the 93 U.S. attorneys has occurred for decades, starting with President Ronald Reagan. In his first two years in office, Reagan replaced 89 of the U.S. attorneys. Clinton brought in the same number in the same amount of time and Bush replaced 88 of them in his first two years.
In the week and a half since Trump’s election, Politico reported that “a collective sense of dread” is filling the Department of Justice. Career DOJ attorneys told the outlet that they are considering leaving before the administration begins as the former president has threatened to fire “deep state” lawyers.
“Everyone I’ve talked to, mostly lawyers, are losing their minds,” one DOJ attorney told the outlet.
Donald Trump blames the Justice Department for much of his torment over the past four years.
Lawyers there are terrified of what comes next. https://t.co/rgkMjw3www
— POLITICO (@politico) November 10, 2024
One source familiar with the transition process told the Caller that the U.S. attorneys will most likely resign on their own, and if they don’t, Trump will fire them himself.
“I would expect actually, given the fact that most of the U.S. attorneys in place now are Biden appointees, confirmed by a Democrat Senate, that President Trump’s going to want to clear them out and then get his own people in there,” a source familiar with the transition process told the Caller.
The president-elect sent shockwaves through Congress and Washington D.C. by nominating now-former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general in a Truth Social post last Wednesday.
Scooplet: Hearing that Missouri AG Andrew Bailey and Matt Whitaker are the finalists for Attorney General. Bailey has met with Trump a few times and appears to have the edge.@DailyCaller
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) November 13, 2024
Source in room where House Republicans are waiting to start leadership elections tells me there were AUDIBLE GASP when Rep. MATT GAETZ was announced as President-elect Trump’s pick for Attorney General.
— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) November 13, 2024
Selecting Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is a giant middle finger to the Justice Department. Gaetz will be a wrecking ball in there, pretty much dismantling the entire apparatus. He’ll nuke the swamp rather than just drain it… https://t.co/6LS6gz2lao
— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) November 14, 2024
As of Monday, Gaetz was reportedly not on the shortlist to be Trump’s next AG, but the pair apparently discussed the decision on Trump Force One. Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor to Trump, reportedly pushed for the pick while the president-elect’s new chief-of-staff Susie Wiles was unaware.
A Trump advisor reportedly said Gaetz was chosen because he brought an intensity to the job that other applicants did not.
“None of the attorneys had what Trump wants, and they didn’t talk like Gaetz,” the Trump adviser told the Bulwark. “Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ fuckin’ heads.’”
Ahead of the pick, Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee told the Caller that, under Trump, the DOJ must drop “politically motivated prosecutions” and stop targeting states that are trying to clean up their voter rolls. (RELATED: Democrats Fight To Make Elections Less Trustworthy)
“As with past presidents, President Trump has the authority to hire attorneys who are dedicated to these goals and fire those who refuse to achieve them for the American people,” Lee told the Caller.