Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday moved to block President Donald Trump's nominations for two key New York prosecutor positions by using a Senate procedure that allows home state senators to object to judicial nominees, reports The Hill.
The New York Democrat, who has been under pressure from Democrats to step down since he helped avert a government shutdown by aiding the Republicans in passing their stopgap spending plan, announced he would not return his blue slip for the nominations of Jay Clayton to U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and Joseph Nocella Jr. to lead prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York.
"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."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley can decide to not honor the blue slip, though he previously said he would.
"The answer is yes," Grassley, an Iowa Republican, recently told The New York Times, "if they are from the state the nomination comes from."