SAN DIEGO U.S. ATTORNEY TO RESIGN AT MONTH’S END
Trump appointees asked to step down by administration
San Diego U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer will step down at the end of the month at the request of the Biden administration, along with dozens of other Trumpappointed U.S. attorneys.
Brewer, who has headed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California for the past two years, submitted his letter of resignation on Tuesday, effective Feb. 28.
“Serving as U.S. Attorney has been the highlight of my 45-year legal career,” Brewer said in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with the talented attorneys and staff of our office alongside our brave law enforcement partners. I am proud to have served with so many remarkable public servants. Together we have made our community safer during perilous and unprecedented times.”
The move is routine for new administrations, as U.S. attorneys are typically political appointments whose prosecutorial priorities are at times shaped by the White House. U.S. attorneys are selected by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate.
Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson made the request during a conference call with the U.S. attorneys earlier in the day and is allowing the transition to happen over the next few weeks. That contrasts with how the Trump administration let go of Obama-era U.S. attorneys, requesting they leave immediately at the beginning of 2017.
Of the 93 U.S. attorneys serving across the country, only 57 installed under former President Donald Trump are still heading prosecutor offices, as many stepped down before the inauguration, according to the Justice Department. Those offices are being led by acting or interim leaders — often career prosecutors in the office — until President Joe Biden can put forward his own nominees.
“We are committed to ensuring a seamless transition,” Wilkinson said in a statement Tuesday. “Until U.S. attorney nominees are confirmed, the interim and acting leaders in the U.S. attorneys’ offices will make sure that the department continues to accomplish its critical law enforcement mission, vigorously defend
the rule of law and pursue the fair and impartial administration of justice for all.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, which also oversees prosecutions in Imperial County, did not say who will replace Brewer in the interim. Typically, the task falls to the second-incharge — in this case Randy Grossman, a longtime former colleague of Brewer’s and relative newcomer to the office.
The DOJ could also install an interim of its own choosing.
Wilkinson is keeping on a few U.S. attorneys under
special circumstances. John Durham, who will tender his resignation as the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, will be allowed to remain at the department as the special counsel tapped to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry, according to a senior Justice Department official.
Since the spring of 2019, Durham has been investigating whether any Obama administration officials broke the law in examining the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia, work that Trump predicted would end in criminal charges against a raft of high-profile former officials. While those indictments did not happen, former Attorney General William Barr secretly appointed Durham to serve as special counsel last fall, all
but ensuring the inquiry would live on after Trump left office.
Wilkinson also asked David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware appointed by Trump, to stay on and continue to oversee the taxfraud investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, the official said.
Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney in Washington, will step down but remain at the Justice Department to oversee the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a proTrump mob, according to officials briefed on his status.
The White House is expected to move quickly on vetting replacements nationwide and has already asked Democrat lawmakers for names. Several high-profile prosecutors, both current and former, are rumored to be in the running for San Diego’s office.
Biden’s pick for attorney general, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
It took two years to install a U.S. attorney in San Diego under Trump. Brewer — a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who had transitioned years ago to private litigation in San Diego — was nominated in June 2018. But delays in the confirmation process kept him from taking the position until January 2019. The office was run by acting and interim prosecutors in the meantime.