# Sessions fires all 46 US Attorneys **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 11, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930 "2017-03-11T14:01:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/41 "2017-03-14T11:28:32Z")
I always view the news and ask myself, “Now what would the headlines and comments be if the other side did this”. Very seldom do I think they be the same. If this was 8 years ago the press would be applauding the clean out of all the Bush prosecutors, it would be a damn good thing the one guy who refused to resign was fired, and all the comments here would be rah, rah. Oh yes, and Obama’s assurance to the one guy he would stay in the job would not be mentioned at all. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/42 "2017-03-14T12:44:25Z")
Your hypothetical retroactive clairvoyance is truly eerie. Why not use your gift to divine the jackpot-winning numbers to last year’s lotteries? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/43 "2017-03-14T13:33:26Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Is there a modern-day equivalent of lead paint chips we haven’t discovered yet? I swear I often think there is. Fox. And Friends. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/44 "2017-03-14T14:13:28Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Fox. > > And Friends. and Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/45 "2017-03-14T14:37:13Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > I always view the news and ask myself, “Now what would the headlines and comments be if the other side did this”. Very seldom do I think they be the same. > > If this was 8 years ago the press would be applauding the clean out of all the Bush prosecutors, it would be a damn good thing the one guy who refused to resign was fired, and all the comments here would be rah, rah. Oh yes, and Obama’s assurance to the one guy he would stay in the job would not be mentioned at all. Are you trying to answer the question I posed? Does your use of conditional verb conjugation mean Obama did _not_ do this eight years ago? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/46 "2017-03-14T14:54:37Z")
> [@simster](#): > > and Facebook. And Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930/47 "2017-03-14T15:12:32Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > When a new Party takes the White House, is it normal for ALL the U.S. Attorneys to be fired? What if the Attorney is in the middle of an important prosecution? It sounds like the firings were handled incompetently but that’s a different issue from the firings themselves. > > This Administration provides much to be outraged about. I join those calling to limit our outrage to the truly outrageous. It is standard for the new party to replace all (or almost all)\* the US Attorneys. Clinton fired all 90-odd en masse when Reno took office. Bush slowly fired everyone between January and May. Obama replaced them in “batches” beginning, I think, in May. Every president since Reagan has replaced essentially all of the US Attorneys within the first two years. Firing isn’t like to disrupt a major prosecution because those are likely being handled by career prosecutors in the US attorneys office and/or from Main Justice. Sure, a change in command can shift enforcement priorities (or substantive legal positions taken by the office), but, like Eric Holder said when firing the Bush-era US Attorneys, “elections matter.” - Sometimes one or two stay on. This is usually where state’s senators are the same party as the new administration, but the incumbent US attorney is not. For example, Michael Chertoff stayed on as US Attorney in New Jersey when Clinton took office at the request of Bill Bradley. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sessions-fires-all-46-us-attorneys/781930.md?page=2)