'Deeply corrosive': High-ranking senator blocks top Trump prosecutors

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is repairing connections with liberal allies by blocking the confirmation of Trump’s nominees for top New York federal prosecutors.

“Donald Trump has made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies,” Schumer said in a statement. “Such blatant and depraved political motivations are deeply corrosive to the rule of law and leaves me deeply skeptical of … Donald Trump’s intentions for these important positions.”

Politico reports Schumer will not return the blue slip for Trump’s picks to serve as New York attorney Jay Clayton to head the Southern District of New York office and Joseph Nocella Jr. to run the Eastern District of New York. If approved, Clayton would oversee Wall Street and be in a position to prosecute (or ignore) many high-money white-collar cases, while Nocella would likely prosecute MS-13 gang cases and immigration matters stemming from the John F. Kennedy International Airport.

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Blue slipping is an old, sometimes controversial tradition that allows lawmakers to disapprove of administration appointees from their own state. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) used the process to block the nomination of African American attorney Scott Colom to the federal judiciary, despite the lack of African-American presence. For decades, racist senators abused the process in the service of segregation, such as when U.S. Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi used it to block federal judges sympathetic to school desegregation.

Today Schumer became the first Democrat to use blue slip power against a Trump nominee, and it looks like both sides of the aisle wish to preserve the process. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told the New York Times he would continue to honor blue slips from senators so long as they represent the state the nomination applies to.

Schumer's sudden recalcitrance may reverse some of the damage he drew from the liberal wing of his party when his pivotal vote helped pass President Donald Trump’s controversial government funding bill.

Read the full Politico story here.