'Rats fleeing': Expert alarmed as Trump's DOJ told to prepare for war

A former federal prosecutor has a blunt assessment of what is happening inside President Donald Trump's Justice Department after Republicans' midterm losses.

Barbara McQuade, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan under President Barack Obama, told The New York Times on Wednesday that a wave of senior departures from the department "has the feel of rats fleeing the sinking ship." McQuade, now a University of Michigan law professor, added that career prosecutors would likely celebrate some of the exits.

Her comments came as the Times reported that Aakash Singh, the principal associate deputy attorney general, told dozens of Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys during a Monday conference call that the Justice Department was now on a "wartime" footing. According to three people briefed on the call, Singh urged prosecutors to ramp up pressure on Democratic-led localities such as Houston to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

But the department may not have the manpower to back up the tough talk. Hundreds of career officials have already been pushed out or quit, and the Times reported that many who stayed are now weighing an exit rather than endure two years of partisan warfare with a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Senior leaders are heading out too. Brett Shumate, who led the department's civil division, and Harmeet Dhillon, who ran the civil rights division, have both resigned, as has Jason Reding Quiñones, the Miami U.S. attorney who oversaw a wide-ranging probe of the investigations into Trump. Office of Legal Counsel chief T. Elliot Gaiser and Dhillon aide Jesus A. Osete have been nominated to federal judgeships.

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels insisted Singh's "wartime" remark was about crime, not politics. "The 'wartime' reference had everything to do with public safety," she said in an email.

Still, the department's leadership has thinned to a skeleton crew. One former prosecutor who left earlier this year joked that the department ought to be called "Four Guys," a riff on the burger chain, referring to Attorney General Todd Blanche, top deputy Trent McCotter, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Singh.

The Times noted that Trump's retribution campaign has racked up a string of courtroom defeats, with grand juries increasingly refusing to sign off on indictments. Many of the officials fired or driven out of the department could soon get a public platform as witnesses in Democratic oversight hearings.