Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner says departing Justice Department officials under President Donald Trump could still be impeached and barred from future government service — even after fleeing the job.
In a Substack Live with All Rise News’ Adam Klasfeld, Kirschner discussed the exits of Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon; Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney in Miami who led the “grand conspiracy” probe; and National Security Division chief John Eisenberg. Klasfeld attributed the departures to an incoming Democratic Congress with subpoena power, noting Rep. Jamie Raskin is already examining the SPLC prosecution.
“Winter is coming,” Klasfeld said.
Kirschner said resignation doesn’t end accountability. He listed congressional investigations, bar complaints and possible criminal probes, though he said the latter would likely wait until DOJ has “honest, ethical, law-abiding leadership,” probably January 2029. He compared the officials’ fate to Trump’s first group of lawyers who challenged the 2020 results, several of whom were disbarred.
Then he raised impeachment.
People may assume resignation makes it moot, Kirschner said, but a Senate conviction can also impose disqualification from future government service. He cited the 1876 case of War Secretary William Belknap, who resigned as the House moved ahead, only for the Senate to hold a trial anyway. Belknap was ultimately acquitted when the vote fell short of the two-thirds needed to convict. Kirschner said he wants every Trump official with enough evidence against them impeached, in office or not, so they would “never be permitted to return to government in the future.”
Klasfeld noted the recent precedent of Trump’s Senate trial after he left office, which Senate Republicans used as a procedural escape hatch. He also pointed to U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who last week rejected a Justice Department bid to set aside the ballots of more than 20,000 California voters and described a “broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference.” Klasfeld cited Dhillon’s voter-roll lawsuits as a prime example.
Dismantling Trump’s Department of Revenge by Adam Klasfeld
The senior DOJ officials are leaving at a furious pace, but they may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
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