Lawyers 'astonished' as Trump DOJ sees mass exodus and 'plummeting' recruits

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has lost thousands of experienced staff — many of whom are attorneys — and it has so far been unable to bring in enough new talent to make up for its losses.

That's according to a Monday article by the Washington Post's Perry Stein, who reported that despite the DOJ previously being seen as a premier destination for graduates of top law schools, its recruiting numbers have since "plummeted" during President Donald Trump's second term. While the DOJ keeps roughly 10,000 attorneys on its payroll at any given time, the Post reported that the DOJ has since lost roughly 5,500 staff (not all of whom are attorneys) due to resignations, firings or buyout offers from the administration.

Many of the departures include the vast bulk of the 600 people in the DOJ's civil rights division, along with hundreds of prosecutors who worked on cases involving January 6 defendants, and those who assisted Special Counsels Robert Mueller and Jack Smith in their investigations of Trump. Other prosecutors have been driven out for refusing to bring cases against Trump's political enemies due to a lack of evidence.

Former Georgetown Law Center Dean William Treanor told the Post that the Washington D.C.-based university used to be a pipeline to the DOJ for its top graduates. However, he said there's since been "a total drop in who is applying."

"It’s very, very dramatic," he said. "It’s gone from a good amount of our graduating class to virtually no one applying for jobs at the Justice Department."

Stein reported that U.S. attorneys' offices are seeing much higher turnover than in previous administrations. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro (who Trump appointed to the prestigious District of Columbia office) admitted on Fox News in August that her office was "down 90 prosecutors, 60 investigators and paralegals" and used her interview with Laura Ingraham to beg viewers to apply to work at the DOJ. He also reported that U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros — who runs the DOJ's Chicago office in the Northern District of Illinois — also emailed former prosecutors asking them to apply to work out of his office and encouraged them to send his recruiting email to their colleagues, according to Stein.

"I was astonished. I have never seen anything like that. When I came to the U.S. attorney’s office, I had won 13 state murder prosecutions, and I still thought I had such a slim chance of getting a job because it was such an ultracompetitive place," retired Chicago attorney Mark Rotert told the Post. "Now it’s like, ‘If you ever threw a pass, do you want to be a quarterback?'"

Some of the dearth in the DOJ's ranks may be due to the administration not wanting to hire any attorneys who graduated from schools that have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming, according to DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin. But Stein reported that the DOJ has not officially blacklisted any universities in its efforts to bolster hiring. One unnamed source told the Post that the Trump administration is prioritizing applicants with more explicitly political backgrounds, like those who have worked for the Republican National Committee or applicants who have worked for right-wing advocacy groups.

Click here to read the Post's full report.