Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Removing U.S. Attorney John Lausch before successor is confirmed puts city ‘at risk’
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for President Joe Biden to keep U.S. Attorney John Lausch in his job until a successor is confirmed, saying his removal would put the city “at risk.”
“We can’t be without a permanent head of this office as we head into the summer months when things are most challenging,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday. “That makes no sense.”
Lausch, a 2017 nominee of President Donald Trump who had also earned the support of Illinois’ top Democrats in Congress, was part of a clean sweep announced earlier this month giving him and other U.S. attorneys nominated by the previous administration until Feb. 28 to resign.
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Lausch’s impending dismissal was met with a chorus of disapproval from Illinois’ two Democratic senators and several Republican congressmen who called on Biden to keep him on to see through a range of ongoing corruption investigations that have roiled state politics.
Lightfoot added her voice to that chorus on Tuesday. She said she understands it’s customary to change top prosecutors with a new administration and all U.S. attorneys know they serve at the pleasure of the president but Lausch shouldn’t step aside until there’s a confirmed candidate.
Lausch has done a “tremendous job” supporting the city’s work against violence, Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also noted the U.S. attorney job for the Northern District of Illinois has never been a person of color or a woman. Lightfoot campaigned for the job under President Barack Obama but was not appointed.
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