Justice Department Loses 5 Senior Officials After Midterm Defeat Deepens Staffing Crunch
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 11
Justice Department Loses 5 Senior Officials After Midterm Defeat Deepens Staffing Crunch
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 11
Summary
Five senior Justice Department officials have resigned or are leaving in a post-midterm leadership reshuffle, including the heads of the civil division and civil rights unit and the U.S. attorney in Miami.
The departures hit a department already depleted by hundreds of career officials who were forced out or quit over disagreements with President Trump’s priorities, leaving fewer staff for the next phase of political and legal fights.
On a Monday call, principal associate deputy attorney general Aakash Singh told Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys the department was now in a "wartime" posture and urged tougher pressure on Democratic-led localities to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
That harder line now collides with a widening retention problem, as more career officials who stayed through the election weigh leaving rather than endure two more years of partisan conflict.