By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has pledged a more aggressive crackdown on crime and illegal immigrants, has yet to replace a single U.S. attorney after he abruptly forced the resignation of dozens of them more than a month ago.
In all, 47 Obama administration attorneys resigned, and each position is still vacant, the Washington Post reports. Another 46 U.S. attorney positions are unfilled.
“We really need to work hard at that,” Sessions said when asked Tuesday about the vacancies.
Sessions also has yet to appoint leaders to his top units, including criminal, civil rights and national security divisions.
Without U.S. attorneys, it’s difficult to implement a law enforcement agenda.
Acting U.S. attorneys have taken over temporarily, but that’s far from ideal.
“It’s like trying to win a baseball game without your first-string players on the field,” said former assistant attorney general Ronald Weich, who ran the Justice Department’s legislative affairs division during Obama’s first term.
“There are human beings occupying each of those seats,” Weich, now dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, said of the interim officials. “But that’s not the same as having appointed and confirmed officials who represent the priorities of the administration. And the administration is clearly way behind in achieving that goal.”
