Current and former Department of Justice officials are "aghast" over President Donald Trump's recent moves at the Justice Department, according to MSNBC reporter Ken Dilanian.
Dilanian said on Sunday during an interview on MSNBC's "Alex Witt Reports" that former DOJ officials are concerned about Trump's efforts to install Lindsey Halligan as the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan is one of Trump's former defense attorneys and was placed in the role just days before the Trump administration announced that it returned an indictment from a grand jury against former FBI Director James Comey, one of Trump's long-time political foes.
"It's really obvious what's going on here," Dilanian told Witt on Sunday. "You have a career U.S. Attorney, who was a Trump pick to run that office, but was also a career prosecutor, who did not want to bring this case. So, he was basically fired."
The Trump administration pressured former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert to resign earlier this month because he refused to prosecute cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to media reports.
"Trump brought in a lawyer that he could find, who is not a prosecutor, who couldn't find the grand jury room in the courtroom in Alexandria [Virginia], to bring this case," Dilanian said. "And, it's obvious to everyone what's going on here."
"The thing that's really difficult to grasp here is that there is no law, no legal prohibition against Donald Trump ordering a prosecution because the DOJ is part of the executive branch," he added. "What there was was a 50-year post-Watergate norm and there were policies. But they were just that; they were policies."
