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Much being noted that DAG nominee Jeffrey Rosen lacks prior DOJ experience. Why this matters: DAG is the hardest job at DOJ in any Administration. Obviously, that difficulty is exponentially larger in this Admin. DAG oversees day-to-day operations of the entire DOJ, FBI, DEA /1
ATF, USMS, BOP, all 93 U.S. Attorney’s offices, the immigration judges, etc. The head of the Criminal Division, the head of the National Security Division, the Director of the FBI, the Administrator of the DEA, all of the U.S. Attorneys, report to their boss, the DAG who, if /2
Rosen, will lack any experience over the subject matter for which they are seeking his approval, guidance, etc. This puts Rosen at an enormous disadvantage for quickly gaining DOJ staff credibility & respect because he has had no exposure to wiretaps, FISA, Criminal laws on /3
Discovery, etc. Even in less raw times, a newbie to DOJ and someone without Criminal or prosecution experience would have an enormously steep learning curve. Now, he’s learning how to fly a plane while actually flying the plane, but with one arm tied behind his back. I can’t /4
Tell you because I don’t know if he’s good, bad, brilliant, or stupid. But I can tell you that his job, in any era, is complicated and largely focused on criminal & national security matters. I know b/c I was Deputy COS to a DAG and I know what their days largely focus on. He /5
Will spend most of his days in meetings at DOJ, FBI, and the White House on the most sensitive Criminal and national security matters. He won’t have personal experience or judgement to pull from. He will be incredibly dependent on his staff and on the judgment of those who /6
Report to him, such as the head of CRM or NSD or the FBI or DEA or ATF. Without his own independent experience on these issues, he will not be evaluating serious & sensitive information at the mercy of others’ interpretations, but will have the power to make uninformed /7
Decisions. Again, this is not unprecedented but it puts Rosen and DOJ in a bind before he even walks in the door, and we are already seeing DOJ, FBI, etc. in a fragile era with so much coming out of the WH. It’s hard to push back against any WH, but it’s even harder to do it /8
When you can’t pull from your own experience, gut, or judgment on topics of national or international significance. I would likely never be thrilled with any Trump pick, but choosing someone with no institutional knowledge & without the experience related to DOJ’s core mission /9
In & of itself becomes another insult to & assault of the institution of DOJ as well as ... you guessed it ... the rule of law. I hope Rosen treats DOJ with the reverance it deserves, and which Rod has given it under excruciating circumstances. But I don’t know how Rosen can./END
