Administration Says Nominees Share Trump’s Vision of ‘Making America Safe Again’
Shortly after taking office, President Trump, through Attorney General Jeff Sessions, fired all U.S. Attorneys hired by President Barack Obama. For many months these key positions have remained open, but the Trump White House has quietly, finally, been nominating their replacements. Almost all are white men.
There are 93 U.S. Attorney offices. The Trump administration has so far nominated 42 individuals, including nine on Friday.Â
Of the 42, 41 are men, 40 are white men. One nominee is a woman of Chinese-American descent. One man is African-American.Â
Trump waited until June to nominate his first set of U.S. Attorneys. Eight in total, seven were men. Jessie Liu was the only woman.Â
Late last month Voice of America reported Trump had nominated a total of 33 candidates: 32 men and one woman. Friday brings the count to 42: 41 men and one woman.
“Among Trump’s 33 nominees, all but three are white men,” VOA noted the list included just “one Chinese-American and one African-American.”
That does not appear to have changed.
President Trump, in what has been called a “virtually unheard of” meeting, was personally part of the interviewing process of the only woman nominee, Jessie Liu.
“President Donald Trump has nominated a slew of prospective federal prosecutors to fill top US attorney seats across the nation, but personally met with one prior to her selection in June,” CNN reported in July, “a move some former Justice Department and White House sources say sharply departs from past practice and more generally is at odds with the understood custom of insulating US attorneys from political influence.”
While no one is questioning the competence of Trump’s nominees, some are questioning the clear lack of diversity.
Former U.S. attorney from Alabama, Joyce White Vance, told VOA, “I’d hate to second guess the individual nominees and think that they’re good people and good choices, but it’s discouraging across the board as a group to see the fact that there is no diversity.”
VOA adds that President “Obama’s U.S. attorneys were a diverse group. There were 24 female U.S. attorneys when Obama left the White House in January.”
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