More than a year into the Trump presidency, the U.S. Justice Department is operating without a host of Senate-confirmed leaders for key positions—a fact not lost on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the second-in-command.

“Congress has actually moved fairly quickly in confirming our U.S. attorneys, in contrast to some of our Main Justice and other D.C.-based officials,” Rosenstein said in remarks at the Newseum, in a conversation with Ronald Collins, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law.

On the U.S. attorney front, Rosenstein was more upbeat. “There are only a handful of offices that do not have either presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys already in place or somewhere in the pipeline,” Rosenstein said.

Although the Senate has confirmed many key leadership nominees—including for U.S. solicitor general and the heads of the national security division, office of legal counsel and the antitrust division—many others are pending votes.

There's Kirkland & Ellis partner Brian Benczkowski for the Criminal Division, who was re-nominated this year after the Senate did not vote on him earlier. The Senate also has yet to vote on the nominations of Jody Hunt for the Civil Division and Jones Day partner Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. Kirkland's Jeffrey Clark is in line to lead the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Michael Bromwich, a former DOJ inspector general, told NPR in January: “I'm not aware of any precedent for so many key positions in DOJ and its affiliated agencies remaining vacant for so long at the beginning of an administration.”

To be sure, many high-level posts have been filled by new arrivals in the Trump administration.

Former Clifford Chance partner Ed O'Callaghan, who joined the Justice Department in November 2017, is serving under Rosenstein as the acting principal associate deputy attorney general. Hashim Mooppan, a former Jones Day partner, and Chad Readler, the acting head of the Civil Division and also formerly of Jones Day, are arguing some of the biggest cases in federal trial and appellate courts across the country.

Richard Zuckerman, formerly the white-collar and government investigations group head at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, is the acting leader of the Tax Division. Zuckerman joined the Justice Department in December.

Collins asked Rosenstein a range of questions about his leadership at the Justice Department, where he is overseeing Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation of Russia's interference in the presidential election. Rosenstein didn't talk specifically about the pending investigation, or even mention Mueller. President Donald Trump has repeatedly derided the probe as a “witch hunt” and reportedly considered firing Rosenstein.

“I think it's actually very important that a special counsel is accountable to the attorney general,” Rosenstein said Tuesday. “If there are any violations of department policies, or principles or prosecution standards they can be corrected because the special counsel reports to the attorney general.”

 

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