Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is sending a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to find out why Sessions asked career federal prosecutor Dana Boente to resign in late October.
Sessions' request came just days before Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced indictments against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates and unsealed documents revealing George Papadopoulos' guilty plea.
Boente serves as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which plays an important role in the Mueller investigations.
A judge in the district approved the search warrant for the Alexandria, Virginia home of former Trump campaign manager Manafort in July.
A grand jury in the district earlier this year became part of Mueller’s probe of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is under scrutiny for his work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman.
Senator Coons tells Reuters, “I‘m concerned about the abrupt departure of Dana Boente after a career as a federal prosecutor ... There’s a lot of circumstances that connect the ongoing Mueller investigation to the Eastern District.”
Boente will stay on until Trump replaces him, but the President has not nominated anyone for the post yet.
Senate Dem wants to know why prosecutor was asked to resign before Manafort was indicted (The Hill)
Senator seeks explanation for career U.S. prosecutor's abrupt resignation (Reuters)