Key Highlights
- President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to fire court-appointed U. S.
- attorneys, even if judges legally appointed them, according to former Justice Department official John Yoo, who said the Constitution gives the president broad removal power over executive branch officers.
- "Otherwise you could have U. S.
- attorneys who are enforcing federal law differently than the president would, and it's the president who all of us in the country elect, and to whom the president is accountable," Yoo told Fox News Digital in an interview. Trump exercised that power this week by terminating Donald Kinsella just hours after federal judges in the Northern District of New York voted to install him to fill the vacancy left by Trump appointee John Sarcone, whose temporary term had expired.
- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed the move in a fiery social media post, declaring that judges "don’t pick" U. S.
