Vice President JD Vance, R-Ohio, leaves the Senate chamber a month before before taking office as President Donald Trump’s vice president. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP
WASHINGTON, D. C. – After denouncing former U.S. Sen. JD Vance for stalling Senate confirmation of U.S. attorneys when Joe Biden was president, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat says he’ll do the same thing to President Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney nominees.
A statement from U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who formerly chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Vance’s actions set “a new precedent” for requiring time-consuming roll call votes to confirm U.S. attorneys.
“As I’ve said time and time again—there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and another set for Democrats,” said Durbin, who isn’t seeking re-election.
“Because of the precedent set by then-Senator Vance, I am holding the nomination of Jason Reding Quiñones to be a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida to ensure the appropriate Floor time is spent considering his nomination, which I may continue to do for other U.S. Attorney nominees who are reported to the Floor in the future,” he continued.
Cincinnati’s Vance, who became Trump’s vice president this year, announced in 2023 he’d delay approval of all Justice Department nominees to protest “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump by Biden’s Department of Justice.
“We are living in a banana republic where the President is using his Department of Justice to go after his chief political rival, the person he will appear on the ballot with in about a year,” Vance said in 2023. “If the Department of Justice will use these nominations for law instead of politics, I am happy to end this hold policy, but so long as the Department of Justice uses its nominations and uses its personnel to go after its political opponents from the President of the United States on down, I will object.”
The holds Vance put on U.S. attorney nominees, including Ohio’s Becky Lutzko, kept the Senate from swiftly approving them by “unanimous consent” if there were no objections to their confirmation. Lutzko was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio on an interim basis.
After Vance announced his delays on Biden’s U.S. attorney nominations, Durbin said it had been 49 years since the last time the Senate required a roll call vote on a U.S. attorney. Durbin said all Trump’s U.S. Attorney selections in his first presidential term were confirmed by unanimous consent.
Durbin repeatedly sparred with Vance on the Senate floor when Durbin tried to get the full Senate to vote on Lutzko’s nomination and others Vance was holding up. He argued that U.S. attorneys are “too important to be used as political pawns in a national debate.
“They lead our nation’s effort to prosecute violent criminals,” Durbin said in a September 2023 exchange with Vance. “Don’t tell me that you’re for law and order, but you want to stop criminal prosecutors from being appointed to the job.”
The GOP chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, released a statement that said he’s “disappointed” that Durbin “is playing politics to filibuster Quinones’ nomination and possibly many other U.S. Attorney nominees.” Quiñones is currently a judge in Miami.
“As the Ranking Member himself has noted, U.S. Attorneys are responsible for ‘the prosecution of violent criminals, tracking down fugitives and protecting Americans,’” Grassley’s statement continued.
He said the “precedent” Durbin claims was set by Vance “does not exist.
“Vance’s holds were limited to a small number of U.S. Attorney nominees in the latter half of the Biden administration,” said Grassley. “Placing a blanket hold on all U.S. Attorney nominees before the Trump administration has filled even a single one of the 93 Attorneys’ Offices would constitute an aggressive, unprecedented attack on the American criminal justice system.
“I hope the Ranking Member will rethink his approach and work with me to confirm President Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees, as I’ve done in good faith under both Republican and Democrat presidents.” Grassley continued.