Leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee is sparring over ranking member Dick Durbin’s decision to block the swift confirmation of a U.S. attorney nominee — and his warning that he could do the same for others.
The Illinois Democrat had announced earlier this week that he would put a hold on the U.S. attorney nominee for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, who is now a state judge in Florida. In doing so, Durbin would create a procedural hurdle that would likely slow Quiñones’ confirmation at a time when the Trump administration has yet to confirm any U.S. attorney nominees in the Senate.
Durbin, who cautioned he could do the same for other U.S. attorney nominees, likened his tactics to those deployed by Vice President JD Vance, back when he was a Republican senator from Ohio. At that time, Vance put a hold on a number of Biden-era U.S. attorney nominees, vowing he would do so for every Department of Justice nominee in the wake of the department’s second indictment against President Donald Trump.
“[T]here is now a new precedent for roll call votes on the Floor for confirming U.S. Attorney nominees,” Durbin said in a statement. “As I’ve said time and time again—there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and another set for Democrats.”
But committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is accusing Durbin of “playing politics” with the issue, and arguing that Vance did not, in fact, set a new precedent when he put the holds on attorney nominees toward the end of the Biden administration.
“Placing a blanket hold on all U.S. Attorney nominees before the Trump administration has filled even a single one of the 93 Attorneys’ Offices would constitute an aggressive, unprecedented attack on the American criminal justice system,” Grassley said in a statement.
“Holds should be used selectively,” Grassley continued. “Blanket holds intended to wholly obstruct the confirmation process are misguided and threaten to undermine the Senate’s advice and consent role.”
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