DOJ abruptly requests resignations from 46 Obama-era federal prosecutors

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 11 March 2017

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday announced his request for the resignation of 46 federal prosecutors appointed by President Obama.

While it is routine for incoming administrations to replace these attorneys, who are political appointees, the Justice Department's public announcement reportedly came before many of the prosecutors had been privately informed of their dismissal. The lack of warning led an unnamed law enforcement source to tell CNN "this could not have been handled any worse," but a DOJ representative said the decision is simply part of "a uniform transition" of power.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.