- Oct 17, 2011
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At least a dozen times since the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump has picked someone who has never prosecuted a case in federal court to lead an office full of federal prosecutors.
U.S. attorneys are the most powerful prosecutorial posts in the country, deciding which criminal investigations to pursue and who must face off against the federal government in court. Trump has repeatedly filled those jobs with people who have never worked as prosecutors before — and many of those people have either been disqualified, reprimanded by judges for inappropriate conduct, or seen their cases fall apart.
In May, a trio of judges in Wyoming tossed nine indictments after finding the U.S. attorney, Darin Smith, committed “many known instances of misconduct” by addressing a panel of grand jurors with “inflammatory and inappropriate” commentary. Smith told the prospective grand jurors that the defendants were “bad guys” and “murderers” who “did what you are going to hear about,” according to the judges. They also found that Smith handed out business cards to grand jurors, inviting them to reach out to him.
In April, a committee of New York state’s appellate court system found that John Sarcone, the embattled federal prosecutor leading the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York, committed professional misconduct.
In Nevada, Sigal Chattah, who is leading the U.S. attorney’s office as first assistant after a federal judge disqualified her from holding the top job, ordered the last-minute cancellation of a plea deal that had been directed and approved by the supervising attorney in the office’s criminal division.
The U.S. attorney for the middle district of North Carolina, Dan Bishop... is also a special prosecutor tasked with pursuing election fraud, and his early efforts have reportedly included pushing the FBI to revisit inquiries it had already concluded were fruitless.
U.S. attorneys are the most powerful prosecutorial posts in the country, deciding which criminal investigations to pursue and who must face off against the federal government in court. Trump has repeatedly filled those jobs with people who have never worked as prosecutors before — and many of those people have either been disqualified, reprimanded by judges for inappropriate conduct, or seen their cases fall apart.
In May, a trio of judges in Wyoming tossed nine indictments after finding the U.S. attorney, Darin Smith, committed “many known instances of misconduct” by addressing a panel of grand jurors with “inflammatory and inappropriate” commentary. Smith told the prospective grand jurors that the defendants were “bad guys” and “murderers” who “did what you are going to hear about,” according to the judges. They also found that Smith handed out business cards to grand jurors, inviting them to reach out to him.
In April, a committee of New York state’s appellate court system found that John Sarcone, the embattled federal prosecutor leading the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York, committed professional misconduct.
In Nevada, Sigal Chattah, who is leading the U.S. attorney’s office as first assistant after a federal judge disqualified her from holding the top job, ordered the last-minute cancellation of a plea deal that had been directed and approved by the supervising attorney in the office’s criminal division.
The U.S. attorney for the middle district of North Carolina, Dan Bishop... is also a special prosecutor tasked with pursuing election fraud, and his early efforts have reportedly included pushing the FBI to revisit inquiries it had already concluded were fruitless.
