A former senior Justice Department attorney is warning that the Trump administration’s sweeping purge of career officials is inflicting lasting damage on the rule of law – and may permanently weaken the DOJ as an institution.
Stacey Young, who served as a division attorney for 18 years before leaving the Department of Justice in late January, spoke out Friday in a video interview with legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.
“For nearly two decades, nothing carried more weight than walking into a courtroom and saying, ‘I represent the United States,’” Young said. “But now people are being told, ‘You no longer represent the United States – you represent Donald Trump.’” She called the shift “transformational” and a direct threat to the future of the rule of law.
“It’s absolutely stunning and brazen, and this administration has expressed no interest in following civil service laws – civil service protections that have existed since the 1970s, and some since the 19th century – that make sure our civil service, particularly the Justice Department, operates in an apolitical way,” Young said.
She went on to warn that the consequences extend far beyond the immediate loss of talent and institutional knowledge. The deeper damage, she argued Friday, is the DOJ’s reputation – once considered one of the most prestigious places for lawyers and law enforcement professionals to build a career.
“Without those civil service laws being followed, of course, we’re going to see what is happening now: the administration is pushing people out who they think are going to get in the way of this president’s agenda,” she said.
“And it’s been devastating to the department.”
Young, who now leads Justice Connection – an organization that supports DOJ employees – as its executive director, openly questioned whether the DOJ will ever again attract the nation’s top lawyers and law enforcement officials.
“If people now know that the institution can be politicized and weaponized so easily,” Young asked, “can we really expect them to come back?”
