Experts are worried about numerous vacancies in the criminal and national security divisions of the Justice Department, Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post reports.
“There is no question that the vacancies always have an effect,” Robert Raben, an assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration, said. “Senior leadership matters in policymaking, responsiveness to Congress and making cases.”
The Washington Post wrote that high-level positions for appointees and department heads create a security threat, according to former Justice Department officials.
But Max Stier, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, said those kinds of positions often take time to be filled during the beginning of a president’s second term.
“It’s critical to have these positions filled,” Stier said. “It’s very difficult even when there are capable acting or career people in those jobs because the organization just doesn’t operate in the same way.”