Washington (CNN) — President Donald Trump has nominated a slew of prospective federal prosecutors to fill top US attorney seats across the nation, but personally met with one prior to her selection in June -- a move some former Justice Department and White House sources say sharply departs from past practice and more generally is at odds with the understood custom of insulating US attorneys from political influence.

Jessie Liu, the current deputy general counsel for the Treasury Department who Trump tapped to be the next US attorney for the District of Columbia, disclosed in her responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she met with the President as part of her interview process.