He shares Trump’s skepticism of the FBI and co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal shortly before the 2016 election that accused the agency of having a “double standard” with regard to Democrats and Republicans. Instead, the principal deputy solicitor general, Jeff Wall, will most likely be tapped as the acting solicitor general. Photos by Mark Wilson/Getty Images and Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images. Before joining the Trump administration, Francisco had served in the George W. Bush administration and more recently, worked in private practice at the Washington, DC, office of Jones Day. Mark Joseph Stern covers courts and the law for Slate. It’s pretty clear that Noel Francisco is not an institutionalist like Rod Rosenstein. Former Justice Department officials who served in Democratic and Republican administrations supported his appointment, saying that he had a reputation for fairness and for protecting the work of career lawyers. Young, who Baldwin selected to write his biography, said 'the truth, I think, is that, as in 1927, but with nearly ten years more to carry, Baldwin was broken in mind.' It’s pretty clear that Noel Francisco is not an institutionalist like Rod, Rolling Around on the Floor in the Pop-Tarts Aisle, Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission. Francisco's Senate confirmation hearing was in May 2017, the day after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director. The White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He represented former Virginia Republican Gov. The ban ostensibly permits case-by-case exceptions, and Francisco told the court that consular officers themselves made the final decision about who received waivers. In fact, that decision was made by State Department officials and seems to be infected with bias and caprice. Bob McDonnell as a witch hunt. US Solicitor General Noel Francisco is expected to resign from his role as the government's top lawyer before the Supreme Court in the coming days, according to two sources familiar with the move. What in the world was the solicitor general talking about? All rights reserved. You’ve run out of free articles. That is unprecedented and astonishing. It subverts the office’s historical independence—upon which the courts typically rely—turning it into an arm of the Republican and evangelical legal movement. As he told the court: The president’s constitutional responsibility to faithfully execute the laws requires adequate authority to remove subordinate officers. Francisco’s startling Lucia argument seemed designed to undermine this rule. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, accompanied by his chief of staff at the time, Joseph H. Hunt, during a news conference in 2017 … Mr. Hunt was confirmed in 2018 to lead the civil division by a bipartisan group of senators, a rare show of broad support for a Trump appointee. As Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff, Mr. Hunt drafted the letter recusing Mr. It's unclear how the matter will ultimately be resolved, and a person close to Cipollone disputed he would block Philbin's exit if he was up for a promotion. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for you because I have personally witnessed the manner in which you have carried out your responsibilities,” he wrote. I was in the courtroom that day, and when Francisco made his claim that Trump had rescinded his promise of a Muslim ban, I saw a puzzled look flash across the liberal justices’ faces. Francisco, 50, has led the solicitor general's office since September 2017 and been a forceful advocate for President Donald Trump. Justice Dept. Mueller has secured numerous convictions and indictments, most recently obtaining a plea deal from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. If Rosenstein were to depart, that progress would likely come screeching to a halt. The official, Joseph H. Hunt, who previously was chief of staff to Jeff Sessions when he was the attorney general, did not say why he was leaving, and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on his departure. Besides Mr. Hunt, Brian A. Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said last week that he was leaving in July, and Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, told officials at the department that he planned to leave when the Supreme Court wrapped up its session this month. Help us continue to provide the reporting, commentary, and criticism you won’t find anywhere else. Francisco attempted to turn the highly technical case into a presidential power bonanza. (The Supreme Court eventually overturned McDonnell’s conviction.). Rosenstein, a Republican, is widely considered to be principled and ethical, and has reportedly not hampered the special counsel in any way after appointing Robert Mueller to the job last year. No specific reason for Francisco's departure was given but solicitors general and other top Justice Department officials have sometimes stepped down near the end of an administration's term. When the court ruled for Trump, the four dissenters noted that the majority’s reasoning relied heavily upon the government’s highly dubious assertion that the waiver process is impartial. Francisco’s piece deployed the now-familiar tactic of condemning standard FBI practice as evidence of political prejudice, decrying the prosecution of former Virginia Gov. On Monday, Axios reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had offered his resignation in the wake of a New York Times report that Rosenstein suggested covertly recording Trump and discussed the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. Those include the administration’s decision to no longer defend the Affordable Care Act in court, the president’s fight to add a citizenship question to the census, and the adoption of harsh stances on immigration. Francisco further misled the court about how the travel ban’s waiver process works. Philbin was reportedly up for a job in the solicitor general's office before -- in the 2000s, when George W. Bush was in office -- only to be denied a promotion because of a role he played in reviewing the legality of the federal government's domestic spying program, according to what Comey later told investigators. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If and when Rosenstein is ousted, his move will put Mueller’s investigation in serious jeopardy. G.M. Recall that, under current Justice Department regulations, Trump can’t fire Mueller himself. And you'll never see this message again. Notes from his time as chief of staff were the basis for some of the Mueller report’s more dramatic moments, including Mr. Trump’s realization that the appointment of the special counsel signaled “the end of my presidency,” a concern he underscored with an expletive. DeSantis’s new data analyst: an anti-mask sports blogger with no credentials, Biden responds to Trump's refusal to concede. (He’d need an ethics waiver because his old law firm, Jones Day, now represents Trump—but that would be easy to obtain.) A fiercely partisan Trump loyalist, Francisco is unlikely to take Rosenstein’s hands-off approach to the probe. Francisco was simply attempting to deceive the court. He did not say where he was going next but told his staff that he was “amazed” by their work ethic and integrity. The op-ed is a precursor to Trump’s anti-Mueller playbook. By Kaitlan Collins, Evan Perez and Joan Biskupic, CNN, Noel Francisco to step down as US solicitor general, sources say. In his absence, Comey, then deputy attorney general, had been tasked with carrying out his responsibilities, and later refused to reauthorize the program during a dramatic standoff in Ashcroft's hospital room. WASHINGTON — The head of the Justice Department’s civil division told staff members on Tuesday that he planned to resign after nearly two years in the post, according to an email obtained by The New York Times, making him the third top official at the department to step down in the past week.

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