ST. GEORGE – Utah’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Huber, offered his letter of resignation to President Donald Trump’s administration Monday. He is one of 46 U.S. attorneys who were asked to resign by the administration last week.
“Late Friday evening United States Attorney John W. Huber received formal notification of the administration’s request for his letter of resignation,” Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said in a statement Monday. “He immediately complied with that request and has offered his resignation.”
While the resignation has been offered, it has not yet been announced whether the Trump administration has accepted it.
Huber, along the 45 other U.S. attorneys asked to resign were appointed by President Barack Obama. It is not at all uncommon for a new presidential administration to ask the appointees of a previous administration to resign.
Many of the 93 Obama appointees had already left or were making plans for their departures.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions himself was asked to resign as a U.S. attorney in 1993 in a similar purge by President Bill Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno.
U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. Some, like Peter Neronha, who had served as U.S. attorney for Rhode Island since 2009, said he had already been preparing for his eventual departure before Friday and had written a resignation statement to be released upon his exit.
Whenever there’s a change in presidential administration, he said, “I think it would be unwise not to be ready.”
A Utah native, Huber was appointed to become Utah’s U.S. Attorney in February 2015 with the support of Sen. Orrin Hatch. Huber was confirmed by the Senate in June and took the oath of office in August 2015.
Huber had served with the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 2002. Prior to that he was the chief prosecutor for West Valley City.
Huber has also been recognized for his service by two U.S. Attorneys General. In 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft recognized Huber for his work in fighting violent crime, and in 2010 Attorney General Eric Holder honored him for his performance as a federal prosecutor.
Associated Press reporter SADIE GURMAN contributed this article.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.
Thank you for not trying to use this as a way to smear out President. You wrote a factual unbiased article.
There are many legal drugs that cause impairment. Why single out alcohol ? What about Ativan or Xanax or even cold remedies? Impairment is subjective and should be enforced as such!
Asking if you have been drinking is targeting alcohol consumption not impaired driving. If BAL
Is below.05 then arrest and take blood and test for all substances that could cause impairment.
Then you can stop everyone who doesn’t drive perfectly! Where does this end?