WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he has ordered the firing of all remaining US attorneys nominated by his predecessor Joe Biden.

“Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicised like never before,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ US Attorneys,” he said.

“We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence,” Trump added. “America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System — THAT BEGINS TODAY!”. It is standard practice for an incoming president to replace the federal prosecutors, known as US attorneys, nominated by their predecessor.

In a separate move, Trump intends to nominate advisers from his first term to top Justice Department posts, including John Eisenberg to lead the national security division and Brett Shumate for the civil division, the department said on Wednesday.

There are 93 US attorneys, one for each of the 94 federal court districts in the country. Two districts share a US attorney. US attorneys are the top federal law enforcement officer in each district. A number of US attorneys nominated by Democrat Biden resigned following Trump’s November election victory in anticipation of being replaced.

The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned. Among those sacked were members of the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two now-abandoned criminal cases against Trump.

The acting US attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York, a Trump appointee, resigned last week after being asked by the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Trump nominees

Shumate is already acting head of the civil division and managing the departments defence of the administration against a slew of lawsuits over federal worker firings, the dismantling of federal agencies and the attempts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive data.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2025