Former CIA Director James Woolsey Friday called the firing of 46 U.S. attorneys by the Trump administration "rude" and likened it to the debacle after the president issued his first travel ban executive order in January.
"It sounds like the initial announcement of travel restrictions, which seem to have been done with no staff work," Woolsey told Erin Burnett on CNN. "The second round.
"Maybe they can figure out how to do this a second time," he said. "That's not the way to do it. They're important figures in the government."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors appointed by President Barack Obama who have not already resigned to do so "in order to ensure a uniform transition," the Justice Department said.
New presidents generally name their own U.S. attorneys, who are political appointees.
Among those asked to quit were Preet Bharara, the Obama appointee who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
His office handles some of the most critical business and criminal cases passing through the federal judicial system.
Woolsey, 75, has served four presidents in various roles: Republicans Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
He led the CIA under Clinton.
"It's really kind of hard to say exactly why this is all kind of clumsy and messy," he told Burnett. "It's not hard to do — and you do it administration to administration.
"It doesn't have to be like this, like what we're seeing."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.