Who is Dana J. Boente?

If you’re a leftist, he’s about to become the devil incarnate for accepting President Trump’s appointment as acting attorney general in place of the disobedient Sally Yates. In reality, Boente is a long-time civil servant who was appointed during the Obama administration to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana and later as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA).

For years, Boente was Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Fraud Unit of the EDVA. Before that, he served in the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Here is what liberal Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said about Boente when they recommended to President Obama that he be named U.S. Attorney for the EDVA:

Dana’s long-time service has provided him with extensive experience in national security matters, public corruption, and securities and financial fraud. In New Orleans, he successfully led the U.S. Attorney’s Office through an important time of transition.

In addition, as acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana has shown himself to be a capable manager of a fast-paced and dynamic office of well over 100 prosecutors,” the Senators wrote.

Boente, then, is no Robert Bork, a leading conservative law professor before coming to the Justice Department. Some readers will recall that it was Bork who agreed to serve as Attorney General in connection with the “Saturday Night Massacre” at the Nixon Department of Justice (and who in that capacity fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox).

Bork or not, and allowing for the fact that Boente didn’t fire anyone, I wonder whether Boente may be in for some modern day “borking.” He likely will be if President Trump ever appoints him to a job requiring Senate confirmation.

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