Schumer moves to block Trump's top prosecutors [View all]

Source: Politico

04/16/2025 10:48 AM EDT
Updated: 04/16/2025 12:15 PM EDT


Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is seeking to block confirmation for President Donald Trump’s nominees for top federal prosecutors in New York. His hard line comes as he’s facing mounting pressure from his party’s base to push back against the Trump administration more aggressively following his decision last month to allow a GOP-drafted government funding bill to advance rather than use his leverage and threaten a shutdown. At the same time, Schumer’s stance also could have repercussions for longstanding norms granting lawmakers a say in who represents their constituents on the federal bench.

Senate leaders typically defer to senators to sign off on confirming judicial nominees in their home states, awaiting a return of the so-called blue slip to begin the confirmation process in the Judiciary Committee. But Schumer announced Wednesday morning he will not return the blue slip for Trump’s picks to serve as New York attorneys: Jay Clayton to head the Southern District of New York office, which oversees Wall Street and regularly prosecutes some of the country’s biggest white-collar cases; and Joseph Nocella Jr. to run the Eastern District of New York office, which prosecutes scores of MS-13 gang cases as well as immigration matters arising from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“Donald Trump has made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies,” Schumer said in a statement. “Such blatant and depraved political motivations are deeply corrosive to the rule of law and leaves me deeply skeptical of … Donald Trump’s intentions for these important positions.”

This game of hardball could play well with progressive activists, who called for Schumer’s ouster as leader after the government funding fight and floated the prospect of a potential 2028 primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/16/schumer-moves-to-block-trumps-top-prosecutors-00292728

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Turtle allowed the discarding/ignoring of the blue slips during 45's first term so I expect Thune/ASSley will ignore Schumer.

Example of one -



MJ article about it (2019) - Blue Slips Are Finally Dead

They were brought back when we took over the Senate but with this MAGat group, I don't expect them to last.