Legal News

Obama?s U.S. Attorney Conundrum

By Ashby Jones

Shortly after Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he fired the nearly 100 U.S. attorneys at once. George W. Bush slowly replaced several prosecutors, but kept a few intact, like Mary Jo White, the former chief prosecutor in Manhattan. (Of course, the Bush administration had big problems later on with its handling of the nation’s federal prosecutors.)

So what will Barack Obama do? That’s the question asked Friday in this Washington Post story. Obama has signaled he’s inclined to keep Chicago-based federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald on the job, but beyond that, he hasn’t said much.

Here’s the dilemma: Obama pledged bipartisanship during his campaign, so replacing the group of mostly conservative U.S. attorneys would perhaps be viewed as a retreat from that pledge. On the other hand, well, lots of the prosecutors in place are of a very different political stripe than Obama.

“They can’t want all these people,” says Melanie Sloan, a former prosecutor who serves as executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “These are all very, very conservative Republicans.”

The White House hasn’t said how it plans to proceed. Several Bush holdovers were told before the election they could stay “for the time being.” About 40 of the Bush appointees left of their own accord before the election, but dozens have stayed on.

But practical considerations may shape how fast Obama moves. Advisers to Obama say they have learned from past mistakes, including Clinton’s decision to require all U.S. attorneys to submit their resignations. Critics said that move threw law enforcement efforts into disarray.

And, of course, there’s the issue of perception, especially given that sensitivities are heightened post the U.S. Attorney mess that plagued Bush’s second term.

“I would caution the Obama administration against making wholesale removals of U.S. attorneys,” said Mark Paoletta, who served in George H.W. Bush’s Office of Presidential Personnel and in the White House counsel’s office. Such a move, he said, “would unfortunately give the appearance of politicizing these law enforcement positions.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).