Posted on 11/10/2024 9:16:09 PM PST by 11th_VA
A collective sense of dread has taken hold at the Department of Justice, which drew Donald Trump’s rage like no other part of the federal government during his campaign.
Some career attorneys at DOJ are already considering heading for the exits rather than sticking around to find out whether threats from Trump and his allies are real or campaign bluster. Those threats range from mass firings of “deep state” lawyers to expelling special counsel Jack Smith from the country.
“Everyone I’ve talked to, mostly lawyers, are losing their minds,” said one DOJ attorney, who like most of the people interviewed for this article was granted anonymity to speak freely about colleagues and avoid retribution from the president-elect and his allies. “The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.” While alarm over Trump’s return is widespread throughout the federal bureaucracy, it is perhaps most acute at the Justice Department, which was at the center of many of the major controversies of his first term.
Most of the department’s 115,000 employees were around for those controversies. Critics believed the Trump White House meddled in some of the department’s high-profile prosecutions. Both of Trump’s attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and William Barr, eventually lost the president’s confidence. And his first term ended with a stunning showdown between Trump and nearly all of his DOJ appointees as they resisted his attempts to cling to power.
But department veterans say those events pale in comparison to what they expect when Trump gets a second chance to try to remake the DOJ in his vision. They also know Trump’s anger at the department has only deepened in the past four years as it launched two unprecedented criminal prosecutions against him.
“Many federal employees are terrified that we’ll be replaced with partisan loyalists — not just because our jobs are on the line, but because we know that our democracy and country depend on a government supported by a merit-based, apolitical civil service,” said Stacey Young, a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division who won an award from Barr in 2020 and is president and co-founder of the DOJ Gender Equality Network.
It all adds up to a feeling of trepidation for many of the department’s rank and file.
“We’ve all seen this movie before and it’s going to be worse,” said one former DOJ official who served under Trump and several of his predecessors. “It will be worse. It’s just a question of how much worse it’s going to be.”
“The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.”
They’re not nearly afraid enough to suit me.
L
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group of people.
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
Do you have something to hide?
DOJ should be terrified
They have become America’s woke/Left KGB
Personally, I favor breaking them on the wheel.
Unlike what they've got now? Buckle up.
They have nothing to fear of they’ve done nothing wrong.
“...we know that our democracy and country depend on a government supported by a merit-based, apolitical civil service,..”
Gee, maybe they should DONE that, BEEN that!
This should free up some parking.
BE worried! Be deeply worried, why don’t you?
The script is about to be flipped.
DOJ has 115,000 employees???!!!
Its bigger than almost all American corporations!
Like the Soviet Union, we are reaching the point where our bloated leftist government will bankrupt us.
The shredders and BleachBit programs in DC are running full blast 24/7, contributing to global warming
Nothing to worry about...as long as they’re clean.
Oh, never mind.
These people are so freaking deranged, “ “Many federal employees are terrified that we’ll be replaced with partisan loyalists — not just because our jobs are on the line, but because we know that our democracy and country depend on a government supported by a MERIT-BASED, APOLITICAL civil service,” said Stacey Young, a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division…”Oh PLEEZE!!!!
There is precedent.
BJ Clinton fired US attorneys and the travel office [Travelgate].
Reagan fired the air traffic controllers.
Trump needs to clean house completely or the remaining ones will do everything they can to sabotage his 2nd term.
CLEAN. HOUSE.
We have a young relative in the DOJ.
It will be interesting to see if they make it through this.
Whatever it takes, Mr. President!
DOJ prosecutors should be on the other side of the courtroom.
That’s why they’re scared.
Using the power of government to prosecute and imprison political opponents.
I’d guess that’s a crime.
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