According to reports, Joe Biden and the Department Of Justice have asked U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Trump to resign from their posts by the end of the month.
A senior Biden administration official on Tuesday said that 56 U.S. attorneys have until Feb. 28 to resign.
In a statement, the acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson said, "We are committed to ensuring a seamless transition.'' "Until U.S. Attorney nominees are confirmed, the interim and acting leaders in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will make sure that the department continues to accomplish its critical law enforcement mission, vigorously defend the rule of law, and pursue the fair and impartial administration of justice for all."
The Justice Department said that earlier this year, "nearly all presidential appointees from the previous administration offered their resignations, though U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals were asked to temporarily remain in place."
Also, the DOJ said that before the beginning of the transition process, approximately one-third of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices were already led by acting or interim leadership.
The Justice Department said that the president will make an announcement regarding nominations to the Senate "as that information becomes available."
The U.S. attorneys will begin transitioning out of their roles, with the exception of the prosecutor overseeing the federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden, David Weiss for Delaware. John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, will resign from his position as U.S. attorney but will stay on as special counsel to continue his now years-long investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday was asked about Weiss and Durham, and said that those "decisions were made in order to fulfill his promise of maintaining independence."
According to a source, Hunter Biden is a subject of the grand jury investigation. According to the source, a "target" means that there is a "high probability that person committed a crime," while a "subject" is someone you "don't know for sure" has committed a crime.
The source also said that this investigation was predicated, in part, by Suspicious Activity Reports -SARs regarding suspicious foreign transactions.
Another source familiar with the investigation also said that the SARs were regarding funds from "China and other foreign nations." The investigation began in 2018.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department wants acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin to leave his post at the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in D.C., but to transition to main Justice to serve in some type of special prosecutor capacity to continue overseeing the Capitol breach investigation.
Sherwin has had oversight of the prosecutions stemming from the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 and she has vowed to "bring the most maximum charges we can based upon the conduct."
Overall, federal authorities have charged more than 150 people in the Capitol siege.
Last week, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson to "refrain from interfering" in Durham’s investigation and the federal investigation into Hunter Biden's "tax affairs" while the Senate works to confirm Biden's nominee to lead the Justice Department.
Currently, the Senate is processing the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the position of attorney general.
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