By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Friday, March 10, 2017, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking for the resignations of 46 United States attorneys who were appointed by previous administrations. Among there were George Beck, who represents Alabama’s middle district and Kenyen Ray Brown who serves Alabama’s Southern District.
Joyce Vance, who was the US Attorney for Alabama’s Northern District, retired the same day that President Donald J. Trump was inaugurated.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores said, “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.”
The move generated much criticism by critics from the left, though the last four administrations have had similar policies. Sessions himself was asked to resign his position as US Attorney for Alabama’s Southern District by President Bill Clinton (D).
Sessions is already being criticized for his testimony before the Senate where he failed to divulge two meetings with the Russian Ambassador.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has called for Sessions to resign. Rep. Pelosi said, “Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.’ We now know that statement is false. Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign. Sessions is not fit to serve as the top Law Enforcement officer of our country and must resign.”
US Senator Luther Strange (R-Alabama) meanwhile defends Sessions. In an op-ed in the Hill Strange wrote, “Unfortunately, in Washington, intense scrutiny can mean character assassination. In this case, the tradition of the Senate giving its ‘advice and consent’ to an incoming administration’s nominees was replaced by political theater. Watching all this then, I did not think Democrats could stoop any lower. As we learned last week, they can. Not only are the recent attacks against Jeff hypocritical, they are entirely divorced from reality.
As Attorney General Sessions made clear immediately when this latest diversion erupted last week, his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee was correct, and his answers were given within the context of the questions asked. Democrats know that meetings between senators and foreign ambassadors happen nearly every day, especially for a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.”
AG Sessions has recused himself from the investigation into the allegations that Russian intelligence agencies may have hacked Democratic Party databases in order to help Trump witn the 2016 election.
It is possible that President Trump may ask some of the US Attorneys to stay on. But sources have told the Alabama Political Reporter that that will not be the case with Beck and Brown.
The new US Attorneys still have to be confirmed by the US Senate. In a show of unprecedented partisanship the Democrats have been using procedural delay tactics to slow most of Trump’s nominees, meaning it may be weeks before the new US Attorneys are confirmed by the Senate.
