The Trump administration is gearing up to replace the U.S. attorney in Washington, DC, who monitored the controversy-plagued moves towards the concluding stages of the prosecutions against top Trump allies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
President Trump wants to nominate the US attorney in Cleveland, Justin Herdman, and oust Tim Shea, the White House announced. Shea served as an aide of Attorney General William Barr for a long time and was roped in to spearhead the US attorney's office on an interim basis by the attorney general earlier this year.
The idea behind assigning Shea leadership of the US attorney's office was to tout him as the President's nominee and take up that position permanently. Due to an unyielding tenure, which involved mishandling sensitive cases drastically reduced his chances, but Shea is likely to be assigned the duty of leading the Drug Enforcement Administration, an administration official has confirmed to CNN.
By law, Shea's tenure was restricted to 120 days, but there is a possibility that it was extended with approval from the US district court in Washington, DC. During a phone call that was last week, the chief district court judge informed Shea that an extension was highly unlikely, according to officials familiar with the matter.
A court spokesperson remained mum about the call, claiming that the judges of the court were yet to meet to look at a US attorney appointment in the case that the task would be assigned to them. His eviction covers a raucous phase in the authoritative office that has been associated with political manipulation allegations.
Herdman will be bequeathed with several crises, including a leak investigation that could mislead President Trump's political enemies. Shea worked under Barr's first spell as attorney general at the Justice Department during the administration of George H.W. Bush and was asked to serve as a counselor to Barr following the arrival of attorney general last year.
In Jan., Barr made Shea the interim U.S. attorney in DC, where he played a crucial role in the critical situation that unraveled shortly after the Justice Department restricted a sentencing recommendation for Stone that according to Barr was too stiff, triggering strong protest from career attorneys that were handling the case.
The Justice Department recently decided to drop the criminal case against Michael Flynn, but career prosecutors refused to sign the filling. The only signature appearing on the filing was of Trump'sfirst national security adviser, Shea.