Donald Trump's election victory of Vice President Kamala Harris already has staffers at the Justice Department planning their exits, fearful they will either be fired because they are not considered loyal to him or because they want no part of what is expected to be a wave of investigations of his enemies.
According to a report from Politico, for some career DOJ officials their worst dreams have come true believing the department will be highly politicized in a way it has never been before.
In an interview with Politico's Josh Gerstein, one DOJ prosecutor admitted, "Everyone I’ve talked to, mostly lawyers, are losing their minds. The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.”
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According to the report, some staffers were around during the first Trump administration and survived by keeping their heads down, but expect a second round under a vengeful Trump will be near to impossible with Gerstein reporting they "know Trump’s anger at the department has only deepened in the past four years as it launched two unprecedented criminal prosecutions against him."
According to one attorney who plans to stick around, they would like to see others follow suit because, even if they can't derail the Trump vengeance train, they can slow it down.
“You need career people there to make sure that the maniacs in charge just can’t, like, run roughshod over federal laws and DOJ practice,” they explained. “I was able to tone down…briefs in a way that people who would have replaced me, would not have.”
Former White House lawyer Norm Eisen agreed.
"They should absolutely stay,” he advised “That’s easy for me to say because I don’t have to deal with a boss who’s appointed by Donald Trump every day, but I know from my own experience in government that you can’t just show up and snap your fingers. And the continuity of that career civil service staff will be very, very important to the preservation of the republic.”
“Donald Trump has learned about how to manage the federal bureaucracy, so, sure, it’s going to be worse. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy for him, so I think it will be important for people to stay put,” he added.
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