Well, under the Law which was in effect during Clinton's Administration the Attorneys were appointed by the President for a term of 4 years and confirmed by the Senate.
However, part of the Patriot Act enacted by President Bush and the Republican majority created a way to bypass the Congressional approval process.
On March 9, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act[6] which amends Section 546 by striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the following new subsection:
(c) A person appointed as United States attorney under this section may serve until the qualification of a United States Attorney for such district appointed by the President under section 541 of this title.
This, in effect, extinguishes the 120 day limit on interim U.S. Attorneys, and their appointment has an indefinite term. If the president fails to put forward any nominee to the Senate, then the Senate confirmation process is avoided, as the Attorney General-appointed interim U.S. Attorney shall continue in office. Due to the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy, the United States Congress in March 2007 repealed the amendments of the USA PATRIOT Act to the interim appointment statute. [7] This proposed change can be sent to the President, who could either sign it or veto it.
Also:
At the beginning of his term President Clinton requested resignations from all U.S. Attorneys appointed by the prior administration as is standard with new Presidents.
The interesting part was that one of those Attorneys was replaced by the Clinton appointee Eric Holder, who proceeded to indict Dan Rostenkowski (D, Illinois) in the summer of 1994 for fraud.
Note that the Clinton appointed Attorney indicted the Democratic Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for fraud.
Partisan Politics?
AttorneyGate has not yet run its course.
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