Why would the Obama administration make this eleventh-hour change to the line of succession at the Justice Department? "At the time, I was told it was done in consultation with Trump transition," Gregory Korte, the USA Today reporter who wrote the story quoted above, told me Thursday. "Looking back, that's clearly not the case."
Per the article:
The man Obama placed at the head of the line of succession is D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, who is quite cozy with President Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder. He is a former senior adviser to Holder, and he stayed on to work under Obama’s next AG Loretta Lynch before Obama appointed Phillips D.C.’s U.S. attorney in 2015. But Phillips goes way back with Holder—Holder first hired Philips in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1994. It’s also safe to say that the AG offices in the Northern District of Illinois and the Central District of California are not hotbeds of Trump supporters.
Just got 25 pop ups on my iPad when I went to the site.
Without fanfare, Trump reverses Obama order on Justice Department succession
USA Today Feb. 10, 2017
President Trump has quietly signed an executive order changing the order of succession in the Department of Justice, reversing an executive order by President Obama signed just last month.
The order appears to be the first that Trump has not signed in a public ceremony. It’s dated Thursday — the same day Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sworn in — but was not posted to the White House website until Friday morning. The White House did not explain the discrepancy.
The executive order spells out who will act as the nation’s highest law enforcement officer if the attorney general dies, resigns or becomes incapacitated. Such orders have been routine since the 2001 terrorist attacks, but Trump’s is notable becomes it comes two weeks after he fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend his executive order banning travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries.
I do not understand why Sessions would recuse in favor of his guy who is going to grandstand this thing big time and declare smoking guns where nothing exists. Were it Trump doing the recusal, I would assume it would make Boente and Pelosi et al look really bad.
It will be a moot point shortly. The Deputy Attorney General will be fired soon. The replacement’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. The Turtle should get out of his shell and ram this confirmation through- don’t let the Dems delay it.
Is the Pope a socialist? Of course Obama stacked the deck. He and his thugs have set traps everywhere. It’s past time for Trump to literally clear the decks.
Dana & Channing - why are Obama’s picks non-gender specific?
Obama may have done it to move Channing Phillips to cover the Awan IT flustercluck for the Democrats.