Back in May, Donald Trump fired almost all of the US Attorneys. Lookinig to protect himself from prosecution and/or impeachment, Trump is now considering replacements for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York with lawyers from the law firm that represents him and another from the firm of his pal, former mayor of New York City, Rudolph “A Noun, A Verb and 911” Guiliani.
Richard Donoghue and Edward McNally are being formally vetted to become the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island’s Suffolk and Nassau counties. But the White House has still not settled on which one will get its nomination, sources said.
A McNally nomination would likely face pushback from the Senate, since he is a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres, the same New York City law firm employing Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s former counsel for the federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential Russia ties.
“Those kinds of things are normally a disqualifier,” a source close to the nomination process said.
One source said Trump’s White House has been bypassing the traditional process of consulting a state’s U.S. senators for U.S. attorney recommendations. The White House apparently anticipates resistance from New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, two of Trump’s staunchest Senate opponents.
McNally previously served as a U.S. Attorney in Illinois and was appointed by former President George W. Bush to serve as the first General Counsel for homeland security and counterterrorism after 9/11.
Donoghue served as an Eastern District prosecutor from 2000 to 2011 and is now chief counsel for CA Technologies, according to his LinkedIn page. [..]
The consideration of McNally once again shows the White House looking around Trump’s inner circle for top prosecutor posts in New York.
The White House is solely considering Geoffrey Berman — a law partner of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an outspoken Trump supporter — to become the next U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, one of the nation’s most prominent legal jobs.
Berman would replace Preet Bharara, the crusading Southern District leader who Trump unexpectedly fired in March.
None of these men should be anywhere near a US Attorney’s position.MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow goes deeper into why.
Hopefully, some Republicans in the Senate will see through this ruse and reject these candidates.