Ahead of the anticipated Senate confirmation of Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland, the US Department of Justice on Tuesday will ask 56 Trump-appointed US Attorneys to turn in their resignations, CNN reports.
Two current US Attorneys–one in Delaware and one in Connecticut–will be retained because they are overseeing unspecified sensitive cases.
While the US Attorneys are expected to turn in their resignations, which is a standard process in the change of administrations, the Biden Administration is expected to phase out the employment of those in the positions to ensure a continuity of management.
There are 95 US Attorney positions in the Department of Justice, but only 56 are filled with Trump appointees. The rest are filled with “acting” USAs who took over when the appointee resigned or was fired.
When Donald Trump took office, he first asked the US Attorneys for their resignations and had Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to fire all but a handful at the same time. In one case, he had told the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, that he wanted to retain him, but ultimately fired Bharara when it became clear the SDNY would continue investigations it was undertaking.
Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing was scheduled to start Monday, but the Republican minority leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham demanded that the committee slow-walk Garland’s nomination.
One of the US Attorneys Biden will likely retain for a period after receiving his resignation is Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, who is overseeing the investigation and prosecution of the domestic terrorists who attacked the Capitol January 6th.