On a call Monday night, Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson asked Delaware Attorney General David Weiss to remain in office, where he is overseeing the tax investigation of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden. John Durham, appointed special attorney by former Attorney General William Barr to reinvestigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, will also continue his work, but he is expected to step down as a US attorney in Connecticut, the bailiff said.
The resignation request is expected to apply to 56 US attorneys confirmed by the Senate and appointed by Trump.
Bailiffs have scheduled a call with US prosecutors across the country to discuss a transition that is expected to take weeks. The bailiff did not say when the waivers would take effect.
The exchange of US prosecutors is routine, but often filled with political overtones. In 2017, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 U.S. prosecutors appointed by Obama to submit their resignations. A handful were allowed to stay for a short time, but most had to leave immediately.
Mistrust of Trump-era nominees has prompted the Biden government to appoint a career Justice Department officer as interim attorney general, while waiting for the U.S. Senate to confirm Merrick Garland, the president’s nominee to lead the department.
Garland’s confirmation hearing was scheduled to begin on February 8, but was postponed by former Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham who, until this week, when Democrats took formal control of the Senate, was opposed to swift action on Garland audience.
Graham said he needed time to question Garland about the current investigations and wrote a letter on Tuesday to Wilkinson urging him “not to interfere or cancel” the investigations.
Of the 94 American prosecutors serving in districts across the country, 25 are serving in interim positions after some Trump nominees resigned before Biden took office.
Among those that the Biden government may retain for some time, according to people familiar with the matter, are Michael Sherwin, US attorney in Washington, DC, who is overseeing the extensive investigation of the January 6 attack on the State Capitol United. Sherwin is a Miami career promoter, but was installed in DC by former Attorney General William Barr, and among the options that Biden government officials discussed is to get him to continue to lead the insurrection investigation, perhaps from the headquarters of the Justice, while making room for Biden’s nominee in the DC office.
Less certain is how long US prosecutors in New York will remain in office: Seth DuCharme in Brooklyn and Audrey Strauss in Manhattan.
Some high-profile US attorneys who did not resign before Biden’s inauguration included Southern Ohio Attorney General David DeVillers, Utah Attorney General John Huber, and Pittsburgh Attorney General Scott Brady.
Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown has made it clear to a local news agency that DeVillers will be replaced and has applied for resumes, according to Cleveland.com. DeVillers is currently overseeing two high-level corruption investigations involving a former Republican lawmaker and members of the Cincinnati council, which includes a Democrat.
Huber was first appointed by former President Barack Obama and then renamed by Trump. During his second time as a US prosecutor, Huber was tasked by Sessions to reexamine an earlier investigation by the Justice Department into the affairs of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. Huber ended his investigation, concluding that there was no reason to reopen the investigation, a decision that angered Barr, according to people familiar with the matter.
Barr commissioned Brady to review the allegations related to Ukraine and the Biden family made by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The move was initially seen by bailiffs as a way to keep Giuliani’s dubious claims – about which Barr publicly doubted – away from other Justice Department matters.
But Brady embraced the task, say former Justice Department officials, and pushed for investigative measures that led to internal strife with the FBI and others. The status of Brady’s efforts in Ukraine remains unclear.
This story and its title have been updated with more reports.
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