Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice
Signed: February 9, 2017
Published: February 14, 2017
Document Number: 2017-03116
📋Summary
💼Business Impact
This executive order mainly affects businesses that are frequently subject to DOJ enforcement or approvals—financial services, healthcare/pharma, defense contractors, tech/data/privacy-heavy firms, and any company with significant federal contracting or FCPA/antitrust exposure—because it clarifies who will lead DOJ if top leadership is unavailable, reducing uncertainty about enforcement continuity. There are no new direct compliance obligations, but it can change near-term enforcement priorities and decision-making style if succession triggers, creating both risk (shifts in charging/settlement posture) and opportunity (timing for negotiations, disclosures, or policy engagement). Immediate actions: monitor DOJ leadership changes and U.S. Attorney activity in EDVA, ND Illinois, and WD Missouri; stress-test your current investigations/settlement strategy for a leadership transition; and ensure your compliance program (anti-corruption, antitrust, sanctions/export, healthcare billing, and cybersecurity incident response) is “audit-ready” in case enforcement tempo increases under an acting AG.
Full Text
Executive Order 13775 of February 9, 2017
Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby ordered that:
Section 1 . Order of Succession. Subject to the provisions of section 2 of this order, the following officers, in the order listed, shall act as and perform the functions and duties of the office of Attorney General during any period in which the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, and any officers designated by the Attorney General pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 508 to act as Attorney General, have died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to perform the functions and duties of the office of Attorney General, until such time as at least one of the officers mentioned above is able to perform the functions and duties of that office:
(a) United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia;
(b) United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and
(c) United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Sec. 2 . Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in an office listed in section 1 of this order in an acting capacity, by virtue of so serving, shall act as Attorney General pursuant to this order.
(b) No individual listed in section 1 shall act as Attorney General unless that individual is otherwise eligible to so serve under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order, the President retains discretion, to the extent permitted by law, to depart from this order in designating an acting Attorney General.
Sec. 3 . Revocation of Executive Order.Executive Order 13762 of January 13, 2017, is revoked. ( printed page 10698)
Sec. 4 . General Provision. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 2017.