The tussle over Federal prosecutors is continuing:
The federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed longtime litigator James W. Hundley to serve as interim U.S. attorney on Friday, and the Justice Department almost immediately fired him, continuing a clash over control of one of the country’s highest-profile prosecutor’s offices, which is particularly known for handling significant national security cases. [WaPo]
This not even the second incident, but the third, at least; I saw, but did not comment on, the first such incident:
Federal judges in New Jersey declined Tuesday to appoint Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in the state, to continue serving in that role, delivering a resounding rebuke to one of his administration’s most polarizing Justice Department appointees and teeing up a showdownover whowould lead the office.
A panel of the state’s U.S. district court judges made the announcement in a brief order that did not offer any explanation for its decision. The order — signed by Renée Marie Bumb, the chief federal judge in the state — appointed Desiree Leigh Grace, a career prosecutor whom Habba had named as her first assistant, as her replacement.
But within hours, top Justice Department officials announced they had fired Grace and reinstated Habba “pursuant to the president’s authority.” [WaPo]
Until & if Trump goes completely rogue[1], these clashes are very important, and are becoming a pus-filled wound on the skin of the Administration.
- The privilege of nominating U.S. attorneys is an executive function; the judiciary, by selecting interim U.S. attorneys, are removing this important privilege from Administration control, making the Administration look weak and confused.
- But, by not using the privilege, again the Administration looks weak and confused.
- As I noted in the beginning post of this thread, Trump cannot nominate top-flight attorneys for these positions because they won’t, for the most part, work for him. His reputation as a terrible boss cripples him.
- As, as noted before I think, Trump demands total loyalty, and he only can get that from third-raters and worse; better attorneys understand they’re working for the USA, not for Trump. I don’t know if he doesn’t understand, or refuses to accept it, but the government is only occasionally a boss/employee situation; more often, especially for top-level positions such as Cabinet-level positions and US Attorneys, the President picks the best available for the job, and then gets out of the way. In the previous point I said top-flight attorneys won’t work for him; it may be more accurate to say they see his interference, such as directives to investigate political rivals, as unacceptable.
But, as the news articles indicate[2], there are laws permitting the filling of these positions on an interim basis by Federal judges. This is the pinch point for the Administration: accept the loss of this privilege, or nominate acceptable attorneys, if they can find any. Either choice is damaging to an Administration that wants to project absolute power, but instead has projected incompetence and chaos for its entire existence. Such is governance by arrogant amateurs.
The next step, if it’s possible, is for the Federal judges whose appointments were rejected, to appeal the rejection. In the context of Trump’s loss in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, the overturning of tariffs decision, a quick trip to SCOTUS, and a loss at that level for Trump regarding US Attorney interim appointments, would be interpreted by most everyone as Trump losing his grip. We might even see protests outside the White House, with the demand being his resignation.
And, if I might fantasize for just a moment, someone with some chutzpah might challenge Trump v. United States, which is the Presidents get immunity! blunder decision of the conservative activist wing of the Court. Find an incident in which litigation in a Federal court results in the judge citing Trump v. United States for rejecting the suit. Then march it up judicial hierarchy until it reaches SCOTUS, and slyly let them have another go at Presidential immunity. While Thomas and Alito might still think it justified, the balance of the wing may be having second thoughts.
Well, that’s just a fantasy. No one will do that, will they?
1 By rogue I mean Trump tries to turn the USA into a dictatorship. Trump may have waited too long. MAGA is falling apart as they realize Trump’s name is all over the Epstein Files. The threatened loss of MAGA is why Trump is repeatedly shouting the Epstein Files have exonerated him in news clips, just as he did with the Mueller Report, which it did not. But the Mueller Report also didn’t come with pictures and salacious poems; it was something like twenty pages of passive voice legalese, a real chore for non-lawyers to read. I know because I did. Taking revenge on Governor Walz (D-MN) must have been too tempting and delayed Trump for too long, although he may have thought terrifying folks with his ICE troops was important. All kudos to those Minnesotans on the front lines of the ICE protests!
2 I am but a lowly obsolete software engineer, not a lawyer and not prone to looking at Federal law books, so I’ll take the news articles at their word on the matter.
