This is not how this works. This is not at all how it works.
President Donald Trump has personally interviewed at least two potential candidates for U.S. attorney positions in New York, according to two sources familiar with the matter—a move that critics say raises questions about whether they can be sufficiently independent from the president.
Trump has interviewed Geoffrey Berman, who is currently at the law firm Greenberg Traurig for the job of U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Ed McNally of the firm Kasowitz Benson Torres for the Eastern District post, according to the sources. […]
The Southern District of New York is an especially notable position since it has jurisdiction over Trump Tower. Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney there, has said he had been told that Trump would keep him on despite the change in administrations. Yet he was among those abruptly fired by Trump in March.
"It is neither normal nor advisable for Trump to personally interview candidates for US Attorney positions, especially the one in Manhattan," Bharara tweeted Wednesday.
US attorneys do not work for the president. Just like the attorney general is not the president's lawyer, but works for the people of the nation, so do US attorneys. And it's not just these candidates for the New York position—he also met with Jessie Liu, the candidate for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who has since been confirmed.
"To be very blunt, these three jurisdictions will have authority to bring indictments over the ongoing special counsel investigation into Trump campaign collusion with the Russians and potential obstruction of justice by the president of the United States," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in an interview Thursday. "For him to be interviewing candidates for that prosecutor who may in turn consider whether to bring indictments involving him and his administration seems to smack of political interference."
It's steeped in political interference. It reeks of it. One question that arises is what Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are going to do about it.