The Justice Department announced the firings Friday afternoon, and many prosecutors had not been formally notified or even told before they were fired, according to a law enforcement source.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente was in the beginning stages of calling each US attorney individually to tell them they had to resign when the DOJ issued a statement.
A law enforcement source charged that “this could not have been handled any worse” because there was little warning. Many prosecutors found out through media reports that they had to resign today.
A Justice Department spokeswoman explained that forced resignations are a matter of course when turning the agency over to a new administration.
“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice.
The attorney general has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed US attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition,” Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores said.
It is common for administrations to ask holdovers to step down, but what is less common is the abruptness of Friday’s announcement.
But the Justice Department argues that the agency will continue to function as normal.
“Until the new US attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our US attorney’s offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders,” Flores said.
A list of the US attorneys asked to resign was not immediately available. But one of them is the high-profile US attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, according to a Justice Department official.
Bharara met with President Donald Trump at Trump Tower after the November election and told reporters that Trump had asked him to stay on, and that he agreed to do so.
Ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee Dianne Feinstein said she was “surprised” and “concerned” by the news of the firings, saying the actions contradict what she was told by the Vice President and other administration officials.
The law enforcement source said it is understood that it’s customary for a new administration to ask for resignations, but “you don’t tell them to clean out their desks the same day effective midnight tonight.
“I think that there’s no question when you have eight years of one party in office, there are people who stay in government — and continue to espouse the agenda of the previous administration,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Friday.
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