Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit
Source: Reuters
July 14, 2025 9:29 AM EDT Updated 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies - such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University - has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff, according to a list seen by Reuters.
Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs Branch have voluntarily left the unit since President Donald Trump's election in November or have announced plans to leave, according to the list compiled by former Justice Department lawyers and reviewed by Reuters.
The tally has not been previously reported. Using court records and LinkedIn accounts, Reuters was able to verify the departure of all but four names on the list. Reuters spoke to four former lawyers in the unit and three other people familiar with the departures who said some staffers had grown demoralized and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits against Trump's administration.
"Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system," said one lawyer who left the unit during Trump's second term. "How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?" Critics have accused the Trump administration of flouting the law in its aggressive use of executive power, including by retaliating against perceived enemies and dismantling agencies created by Congress.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/two-thirds-doj-unit-defending-trump-policies-court-have-quit-2025-07-14/

Ocelot II
(125,905 posts)since they'll have to rely on political hacks who will advance arguments that the courts will shoot down, assisted by rookies who just got out of law school and couldn't get hired by the likes of Saul Goodman because even he had standards.
IronLionZion
(49,435 posts)Hornedfrog2000
(354 posts)Hopefully dems figure out how to put all of these people in prison. I have no faith
NBachers
(18,725 posts)Alina Habba, where are you when your Master needs you??
Warpy
(113,680 posts)On the other hand, it's going to be hard to get good paople back in the DOJ once that fucker is going, they're not going to trust the government to let them do their jobs.
A functional govt is going to take presidential terms to complete... and the amer people don't have enough patience to stick with the one rebuilding it constitutionally. Tearing it down is always fast and easy. Rebuilding it, not so much. People aren't going to trust working for them anymore. It used to be a fulfilling job, even if it was on the lower end of pay scales. Benefits and self satisfaction made up the difference. They've showed us how little we are appreciated and how quickly intelligence and institutional knowledge can be thrown away. This was even true before I retired. Bush worked against us every way he could.
Warpy
(113,680 posts)Sometimes the rebuilding is just like a treasured original and sometimes it's an improvement. It also gives a great deal of satisfaction to the builders, unlike the destruction which confers only a momentary thrill followed by regret that you just destroyed something you actually needed.
We will be able to rebuild. We also have to make sure that a future President Asshole can't create a bogus agency out of thin air and hubris and destroy any agency or program mandated and funded by Congress, along with firing any of its employees just because.
It'll help if Musk sees the inside of a jail cell long enough to be booked in, which is about the most we can reasonably expect. For a guy like him, it might even be enough.
slightlv
(6,094 posts)This is exactly what I thought when bush created the damnable Homeland Security. Even then, it sounded too Nazi for me, and I could see no good coming from it.
ultralite001
(1,877 posts)Krasnov's courts simply make up the law as they go along...
AI (w/ Grok + ChatGPT et al) simply falsifies citations to fit the cases bringing brought to trial...
Methinks there will be no justice to be found...