New chief named for Justice Department unit probing Trump-Russia ties

[mystery-ak]

New chief named for Justice Department unit probing Trump-Russia ties

By Josh Gerstein

04/28/17 02:25 PM EDT

A veteran federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia has been tapped to temporarily oversee the Justice Department division handling the ongoing probe into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Dana Boente's new assignment as Justice's acting attorney general for national security comes fast on the heels of his most recent high-profile task: serving as the acting deputy attorney general. Rod Rosenstein was sworn in as Justice's No. 2 official on Wednesday, freeing Boente of those responsibilities.

more
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/04/28/trump-russia-investigation-dana-boente-justice-department-237757

[Right_in_Virginia]

Interesting tidbit in bold. 

Boente is second in the line of succession to be the Attorney General of the United States. The order of succession was modified by an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on February 9, 2017, which reversed a previous Executive Order by President Barack Obama that changed the order of succession, without explanation, to remove Boente from the list.[1] Boente was the Acting Attorney General of the United States from January 30, 2017 [2] until February 9, 2017 [3] and the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.[4]

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

[Right_in_Virginia]

 

Dana Boente is the key to Trump-Russia, and Barack Obama and Donald Trump both know it
Palmer Report, Mar 11, 2017, Bill Palmer

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice abruptly forced out dozens of Obama-era U.S. Attorneys today with no warning, but it went out of its way to keep one of those attorneys in the fold: Dana Boente. If the name “Dana Boente” sounds familiar, it’s because it keeps consistently popping up at every turn during the Trump-Russia scandal, dating back to when President Barack Obama was still in office.
 
President Obama appointed Dana Boente as a U.S. Attorney in October of 2015, and assuredly vetted him thoroughly at the time. But just fifteen months later, as Obama was leaving office, one his final acts in January 2017 was an executive order whose sole purpose was to remove Boente from the line of succession at the DOJ (source: Washington Post). This was just as the Trump-Russia scandal was exploding; Obama’s only motivation would have been to try to ensure Boente couldn’t end up in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation during the next administration.

Then Donald Trump came into power, and one of his major actions was to fire acting Attorney General Sally Yates. He had a wide swath of people to choose from in replacing her. But he immediately chose – you guessed it – Dana Boente as his new acting Attorney General. Two weeks later, the same day Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General, Trump signed an executive order changing the DOJ line of succession (source: whitehouse.gov), whose sole purpose was to make sure that – here it comes again – Dana Boente would be in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation if Sessions had to resign or recuse himself.

More: http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/dana-boente-is-the-key-to-trump-russia-and-barack-obama-and-donald-trump-both-know-it/1888/