AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY PAUL PRESTON

With Trump having relieved acting Attorney General Sally Yates of duty for her “betrayal” of the Department of Justice, and with the next AG Sen. Jeff Sessions pending confirmation, meet the new – interim – chief law enforcement officer of the United States: Dana Boente (who incidentally was also appointed by Obama in October 2015).

Dana J. Boente was nominated by President Barack Obama on Oct. 8, 2015, and confirmed by the United States Senate on Dec. 15, 2015, as the 60th U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). As the chief federal law enforcement for the district, which includes offices in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News, Boente supervises the prosecution of federal crimes and the litigation of federal civil matters.

Boente is a 31-year veteran of the Department of Justice, and has spent his professional career in public service. He began as a law clerk to Chief U.S. District Judge J. Waldo Ackerman for the Central District of Illinois in 1982. In 1984, he joined the Tax Division’s Criminal Section as part of the Attorney General’s Honors Program. In January 2001, Boente became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Fraud Unit of EDVA. He was detailed to the Tax Division in August 2005 to serve as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Boente returned to EDVA when he was selected as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in May 2007, and later served as the U.S. Attorney for EDVA from October 2008 through September 2009. In December 2012, Boente was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a position he held until September 2013. He became the Acting U.S. Attorney for EDVA by virtue of the Vacancy Reform Act on Sept. 23, 2013, and served in that position until Dec. 15, 2015.

Boente is a graduate of St. Louis University (B.S.B.A. and M.B.A.) and its School of Law (J.D.). He has lived in Northern Virginia for 29 years.

Meanwhile, former DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller is clearly displeased with the way events have unfolded tonight: