Obama Engineered an Obama-Friendly Lawyer to Succeed Sessions In Case Sessions Had to Recuse Himself

On his way out the door, Obama also rewrote the line of succession in cases where the AG recuses himself. (I didn't know there was such a previously-planned chain of succession.)

He specifically wrote one senior guy out of the succession, and re-routed the succession to go right to his friendlies.

Amid Thursday;s over-hyped brouhaha about Jeff Sessions meeting with the Russian ambassador, a curious detail emerged. In Sessions's recusal memo, it was explained who at the Justice Department would be handling any investigations into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. "Consistent with the succession order for the Department of Justice, Acting Deputy Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente shall act as and perform the functions of the Attorney General with respect to any matters from which I have recused myself to the extent they exist," reads Sessions's official statement on the matter.

Except that if the Obama administration had its way, Dana Boente wasn't supposed be the U.S. attorney to handle these matters in the event that Sessions recused himself. On February 10, USA Today reported the following:

Seven days before he left office, President Obama changed the order of succession without explanation to remove Boente from the list. Obama's order had listed U.S. attorneys in the District of Columbia, the Northern District of Illinois and the Central District of California.

That seems like awfully suspicious behavior. In fact the USA Today story noted this is pegged to the news that Trump quietly signed an executive order restoring Boente to the line of succession. The Obama administration chicanery was likely brought to White House's attention after Obama holdover and acting Attorney General Sally Yates tried to usurp the powers of the president and countermand his immigration executive order, actions for which she was summarily fired.

Why would the Obama administration make this eleventh-hour change to the line of succession at the Justice Department?

Fire.

Them.

All.

And launch painful, expensive investigations and prosecutions.

Right now, Trump basically has a staff of paid assassins cooking his meals for him.

posted by Ace at 07:22 PM

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