'Something is seriously awry': Experts say resigning career civil servants explain what's wrong at Bill Barr's DOJ

No one really knows why federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who was part of a team looking into the Russia investigation, resigned from her post. But her colleagues say it was due to Attorney General Bill Barr's politicization of the agency. According to the New York Times' Neal Katyal and Joshua Geltzer, Dannehy's resignation is "part of an extremely troubling pattern."

"Her resignation looks like part of an extremely troubling pattern. Earlier this year, highly respected prosecutors in the Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases dramatically resigned or withdrew. One of them testified to Congress that the Justice Department under Mr. Barr was treating Mr. Stone 'differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president.' The Justice Department inspector general has opened an investigation," Katyal and Geltzer write.

"When civil servants resign, skeptics often ask what difference one person really can make by leaving. The answer is simple: a lot. Ms. Dannehy’s departure isn’t just likely a major assertion of integrity by her; it’s also a big problem for Mr. Barr — and therefore for Mr. Trump."

Katyal and Geltzer both previously worked at the Justice Department and are familiar with its tradition of political independence. "Neither of us ever heard of career civil servants resigning because they believed the attorney general was acting politically," they write, adding that the resignations are a "forceful public signal that something is seriously awry with the Justice Department under Mr. Barr."

Read the full op-ed over at The New York Times.