Trump appointment challenged by Frosh
BALTIMORE: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh filed a motion yesterday in federal court challenging President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting U.S. attorney general after the ouster last week of Jeff Sessions.
Frosh’s motion in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore argues the appointment is ‘‘illegal and unconstitutional’’ and contends that Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be declared the acting attorney general.
Rosenstein, a former US attorney for Maryland, is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Frosh’s filing comes in the state’s existing lawsuit seeking to uphold provisions of the Affordable Care Act that protect people with preexisting medical conditions when they seek insurance.
The motion contends that Trump’s appointment of Whitaker, an administration loyalist who has publicly criticised the Mueller investigation, violates the legal processes for filling highlevel federal vacancies.
‘‘Few positions are more critical than that of US attorney general, an office that wields enormous enforcement power and authority over the lives of all Americans,’’ Frosh said. ‘‘President Trump’s brazen attempt to flout the law and Constitution in bypassing Deputy US Attorneygeneral Rosenstein in favour of a partisan and unqualified staffer cannot stand.’’
Last week, on the day after the midterm elections, Trump demanded and received the resignation of Sessions, who had recused himself in the Mueller investigation to the president’s dismay. Trump then bypassed Rosenstein to serve as acting attorney general and installed Whitaker, who had been serving as Sessions’ chief of staff.
Frosh’s motion contends Whitaker lacks legal authority to represent the United States in Maryland’s Obamacare lawsuit, which the state filed in September. The filing contends Whitaker’s involvement in the case harms Maryland’s interest in having the lawsuit move forward expeditiously because any filing he authorised would be invalid.
Frosh said it is important to establish who the US attorneygeneral is before any negotiations take place in the case.