United States Attorney General

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The United States Attorney General is a Cabinet member in charge of the Department of Justice and as such, is often considered the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America. However this has changed in the last decade with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, as many of the bodies traditionally overseen by the Attorney General are now under the purview of the Secretary of Homeland Security. Despite this decrease in power, all prosecutorial power has been retained and the Attorney General supervises all United States Attorneys. The current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions who was appointed by Donald Trump in 2017. By virtue of office, Sessions is 7th in the presidential line of succession.

The position of Attorney General has a long history and was one of the first four Cabinet positions created by George Washington, who appointed Edmund Randolph as the first occupant.

Partial list of Attorneys General of the United States[edit]

Name	Term of Office
Edwin Meese III	February 25, 1985	August 12, 1988
Richard Thornburgh	August 12, 1988	August 15, 1991
William Barr	November 26, 1991	January 20, 1993
Janet Reno	March 12, 1993	January 20, 2001
John Ashcroft	February 2, 2001	February 3, 2005
Alberto Gonzales	February 3, 2005	September 17, 2007
Michael Mukasey	November 9, 2007	January 20, 2009
Eric Holder	February 3, 2009	April 27, 2015
Loretta Lynch	April 27, 2015	January 20, 2017
Jeff Sessions	February 9, 2017