Why did the founders set it up to where the President would appoint the AG?

[Quixote1818]

This seems like a recipe for disaster because if the President is like Trump and fires everyone who doesn't bow down to him and clearly makes sure he puts a patsy in place, the system crumbles like day old sandwich bread.

The AG should be someone completely independent and not hired by the President but by the Congress it seem.


Is there something I don't understand?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Because the AG is the head of the DoJ, which is part of the executive branch,

of which the president is the head. AGs can be impeached, though, and they can even go to prison for obstruction of justice. Just ask John Mitchell.

[PoliticAverse]

2. You miss the "advice and consent of the senate" part of the process. n/t

[uponit7771]

3. Congress is supposed to approve the AG and the AG can be impeached and removed by congress ...

... and not even for criminal reasons similar to the president.

The issue we have now is the KGOP is party before country and don't believe in liberal democracies ... they're unAmerican

[stopwastingmymoney]

9. This is the answer, nt

[X_Digger]

4. Legislature writes the laws, the executive enforces them, the judicial applies/ interprets them. n/t

[jberryhill]

5. What happened to the first one is kind of interesting.

[elleng]

8. Washington held his first full cabinet meeting on February 25, 1793,

with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

Washington rewarded Randolph for his support. Randolph was appointed as the first U.S. Attorney General in September 1789, maintaining precarious neutrality in the feud between Thomas Jefferson (of whom Randolph was a second cousin) and Alexander Hamilton. In President Washington’s cabinet, as in the ratification dispute of 1787–1788, Randolph tried to bring people together, rather than jumping to hasty conclusions and ignoring the potential costs in pursuit of self-righteous ideological purity.

When Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in 1793, Randolph succeeded him to the position. The major diplomatic initiative of his term was the Jay Treaty with Britain in 1794, but it was Hamilton who devised the plan and wrote the instructions, leaving Randolph the nominal role of signing the papers. Randolph was hostile to the resulting treaty, and almost gained Washington's ear. Near the end of his term as Secretary of State, negotiations for Pinckney's Treaty were finalized.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Randolph

[McCamy Taylor]

6. So John Adams could prosecute his political enemies?

[hlthe2b]

7. Our checks & balances are not working on this score. I watch with interest what happens in Israel

given the Israeli AG has indicted Netanyahu. Curious, I searched for how they select their AG...

According to Google, the Israeli Attorney General, who is a civil servant, is appointed by the Government upon the recommendation of the Minister of Justice; the term of his appointment is not defined. Removal of an attorney general from office is effected in a fashion similar to his appointment, but this has hardly ever been implemented.

Hmmm...

[Igel]

10. If hired by Congress,

then again, not completely independent.

If elected, then campaigns often on things that are related to law enforcement, and a lot of jurisdictions see how that plays out--not always in positive ways.

[tinrobot]

11. If the special counsel was truly independent, this wouldn't be an issue.

The real problem here is that the AG controls Mueller.

[Volaris]

12. Well look...I don't want Mueller wi independant power to act as cop, judge, and jury any more than I

would have wanted Ken Starr to be able to behave that way.

Just sayin, and Ken Starr was fucking bad enough.