President Donald Trump’s nominees for key posts in the Justice Department fielded questions during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday about whether elected officials could refuse to obey a federal court order.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, posed his first questions at the hearing to Aaron Reitz, Trump’s nominee for assistant attorney general for the department’s Office of Legal Policy, which gives legal advice to the president and executive branch agencies.
“Bottom line: Should an elected official be allowed to defy a federal court order?” Durbin asked.