logo
Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit

Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit

Reuters14-07-2025
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies - such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University - has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff, according to a list seen by Reuters.
Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs Branch have voluntarily left the unit since President Donald Trump's election in November or have announced plans to leave, according to the list compiled by former Justice Department lawyers and reviewed by Reuters.
The tally has not been previously reported. Using court records and LinkedIn accounts, Reuters was able to verify the departure of all but four names on the list.
Reuters spoke to four former lawyers in the unit and three other people familiar with the departures who said some staffers had grown demoralized and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits against Trump's administration.
"Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system," said one lawyer who left the unit during Trump's second term. "How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?"
Critics have accused the Trump administration of flouting the law in its aggressive use of executive power, including by retaliating against perceived enemies and dismantling agencies created by Congress.
The Trump administration has broadly defended its actions as within the legal bounds of presidential power and has won several early victories at the Supreme Court. A White House spokesperson told Reuters that Trump's actions were legal, and declined to comment on the departures.
"Any sanctimonious career bureaucrat expressing faux outrage over the President's policies while sitting idly by during the rank weaponization by the previous administration has no grounds to stand on," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement.
The seven lawyers who spoke with Reuters cited a punishing workload and the need to defend policies that some felt were not legally justifiable among the key reasons for the wave of departures.
Three of them said some career lawyers feared they would be pressured to misrepresent facts or legal issues in court, a violation of ethics rules that could lead to professional sanctions.
All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics and avoid retaliation.
A Justice Department spokesperson said lawyers in the unit are fighting an "unprecedented number of lawsuits" against Trump's agenda.
"The Department has defeated many of these lawsuits all the way up to the Supreme Court and will continue to defend the President's agenda to keep Americans safe," the spokesperson said. The Justice Department did not comment on the departures of career lawyers or morale in the section.
Some turnover in the Federal Programs Branch is common between presidential administrations, but the seven sources described the number of people quitting as highly unusual.
Reuters was unable to find comparative figures for previous administrations. However, two former attorneys in the unit and two others familiar with its work said the scale of departures is far greater than during Trump's first term and Joe Biden's administration.
The exits include at least 10 of the section's 23 supervisors, experienced litigators who in many cases served across presidential administrations, according to two of the lawyers.
A spokesperson said the Justice Department is hiring to keep pace with staffing levels during the Biden Administration. They did not provide further details.
In its broad overhaul of the Justice Department, the Trump administration has fired or sidelined dozens of lawyers who specialize in prosecuting national security and corruption cases and publicly encouraged departures from the Civil Rights Division.
But the Federal Programs Branch, which defends challenges to White House and federal agency policies in federal trial courts, remains critical to its agenda.
The unit is fighting to sustain actions of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency formerly overseen by Elon Musk; Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship and his attempt to freeze $2.5 billion in funding to Harvard University.
"We've never had an administration pushing the legal envelope so quickly, so aggressively and across such a broad range of government policies and programs," said Peter Keisler, who led the Justice Department's Civil Division under Republican President George W. Bush.
"The demands are intensifying at the same time that the ranks of lawyers there to defend these cases are dramatically thinning."
The departures have left the Justice Department scrambling to fill vacancies. More than a dozen lawyers have been temporarily reassigned to the section from other parts of the DOJ and it has been exempted from the federal government hiring freeze, according to two former lawyers in the unit.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not comment on the personnel moves.
Justice Department leadership has also brought in about 15 political appointees to help defend civil cases, an unusually high number.
The new attorneys, many of whom have a record defending conservative causes, have been more comfortable pressing legal boundaries, according to two former lawyers in the unit.
"They have to be willing to advocate on behalf of their clients and not fear the political fallout," said Mike Davis, the head of the Article III Project, a pro-Trump legal advocacy group, referring to the role of DOJ lawyers in defending the administration's policies.
People who have worked in the section expect the Federal Programs Branch to play an important role in the Trump administration's attempts to capitalize on a Supreme Court ruling limiting the ability of judges to block its policies nationwide.
Its lawyers are expected to seek to narrow prior court rulings and also defend against an anticipated rise in class action lawsuits challenging government policies.
Lawyers in the unit are opposing two attempts by advocacy organizations to establish a nationwide class of people to challenge Trump's order on birthright citizenship. A judge granted one request on Thursday.
Four former Justice Department lawyers told Reuters some attorneys in the Federal Programs Branch left over policy differences with Trump, but many had served in the first Trump administration and viewed their role as defending the government regardless of the party in power.
The four lawyers who left said they feared Trump administration policies to dismantle certain federal agencies and claw back funding appeared to violate the U.S. Constitution or were enacted without following processes that were more defensible in court.
Government lawyers often walked into court with little information from the White House and federal agencies about the actions they were defending, the four lawyers said.
The White House and DOJ did not comment when asked about communications on cases.
Attorney General Pam Bondi in February threatened disciplinary action against government lawyers who did not vigorously advocate for Trump's agenda. The memo to Justice Department employees warned career lawyers they could not "substitute personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election."
Four of the lawyers Reuters spoke with said there was a widespread concern that attorneys would be forced to make arguments that could violate attorney ethics rules, or refuse assignments and risk being fired.
Those fears grew when Justice Department leadership fired a former supervisor in the Office of Immigration Litigation, a separate Civil Division unit, accusing him of failing to forcefully defend the administration's position in the case of Kilmar Abrego, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador.
The supervisor, Erez Reuveni, filed a whistleblower complaint, made public last month, alleging he faced pressure from administration officials to make unsupported legal arguments and adopt strained interpretations of rulings in three immigration cases.
Justice Department officials have publicly disputed the claims, casting him as disgruntled. A senior official, Emil Bove, told a Senate panel that he never advised defying courts.
Career lawyers were also uncomfortable defending Trump's executive orders targeting law firms, according to two former Justice Department lawyers and a third person familiar with the matter.
A longtime ally of Bondi who defended all four law firm cases argued they were a lawful exercise of presidential power. Judges ultimately struck down all four as violating the Constitution. The Trump administration has indicated it will appeal at least one case.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Chicharito regrets 'confusion or discomfort' caused after fine for sexist remarks
Chicharito regrets 'confusion or discomfort' caused after fine for sexist remarks

Reuters

time28 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Chicharito regrets 'confusion or discomfort' caused after fine for sexist remarks

July 25 (Reuters) - Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez said he regrets "any confusion or discomfort" his words may have caused, after being fined by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for making sexist remarks on social media. In a joint statement released on Wednesday by FMF along with Mexico's top men's and women's leagues — Liga MX and Liga MX Femenil — officials said the 37-year-old striker's remarks were in violation of their gender and diversity policies and constituted a form of media violence. The football bodies added that Hernandez made statements on social media that "promote sexist stereotypes". FMF imposed a financial fine and issued a warning, and said more severe sanctions could follow if Hernandez repeats such behaviour. "I deeply regret any confusion or discomfort my recent words may have caused; it was never my intention to limit, hurt or divide...," Hernandez posted on social media on Thursday. "I am listening, reflecting, and committed to expressing myself with greater clarity and sensitivity, especially on such sensitive issues. I believe that change begins with oneself. "I will take this opportunity to understand, grow, and continue working to be a better version of myself, based on honesty, love for my family, my values, and love for all of you..." Hernandez posted videos over the weekend in which he called on women to "let themselves be guided by a man" and accused women of "eradicating masculinity". Hernandez, Mexico's all-time leading scorer, also said society had become "hypersensitive" and questioned feminist views on domestic roles. The remarks were widely criticised as sexist and out of touch with contemporary society, prompting condemnation from fans and public figures including Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Hernandez rejoined boyhood club Guadalajara last year after playing for several top European teams including Manchester United, Real Madrid and West Ham United.

Insight: Sudan's Islamists plot post-war comeback by supporting army
Insight: Sudan's Islamists plot post-war comeback by supporting army

Reuters

time28 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Insight: Sudan's Islamists plot post-war comeback by supporting army

KHARTOUM/PORT SUDAN, July 25 (Reuters) - The Islamist movement toppled in Sudan's uprising in 2019 could support an extended period of army rule as it eyes a political comeback after deploying fighters in the country's war, according to some of its leading members. In his first media interview in years, Ahmed Haroun, chairman of the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and one of four Sudanese wanted by the International Criminal Court, told Reuters that he foresaw the army staying in politics after the war, and that elections could provide a route back to power for his party and the Islamist movement connected to it. More than two years of war between Sudan's army and the RSF has caused waves of ethnic killings, famine and massive displacement, drawing in foreign powers and creating what the United Nations has called the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. While the RSF remains entrenched in its western stronghold of Darfur and parts of the south and there is no sign of a stop to the fighting, the army has made major advances in recent months, gains that Islamist operatives say they helped bring about. Army leaders and former regime loyalists have played down their relationship, wary of the unpopularity of ousted ex-leader Omar al-Bashir and his NCP allies. But the army's recent advances have allowed the Islamist movement to entertain a return to a national role, according to accounts from seven of the movement's members and six military and government sources. The NCP is rooted in Sudan's Islamist movement, which was dominant in the early Bashir era during the 1990s when the country hosted Osama bin Laden, but has long abandoned hardline ideology in favour of amassing power and wealth. The movement's resurgence could cement the reversal of Sudan's pro-democracy uprising that began in late 2018, while complicating the country's ties with regional players suspicious of Islamist influence - including hardening a split with the powerful United Arab Emirates. In a sign of the trend, several Islamists and their allies have been appointed since last month to the cabinet of Kamil Idris, the technocratic new prime minister named in May by the army. In response to a request for comment from Reuters, a representative for Sudan's army leadership said, "some Islamist leaders may want to use the war to return to power, but we say categorically that the army does not ally or coordinate with any political party and does not allow any party to interfere." Haroun, speaking to Reuters late at night from a hideaway without electricity in northern Sudan, said the NCP foresaw a hybrid governing structure in which the army retained sovereign control "until all threats are removed", while elections brought in civilians to run the government. "We have taken a strategic decision to not return to power other than by the ballot box after the war," Haroun, a Bashir ally who escaped from prison at the start of the conflict, said in the interview in late April. "The Western model is not practical in Sudan," he said. "We must develop a model for the role of the army in politics given fragile security and foreign greed, as this won't be the first or last war in the country." A senior army officer suggested that a transitional period run exclusively by the army prior to elections "would not be brief." Haroun, wanted by the ICC for alleged involvement in war crimes and genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s -- charges he dismisses as political -- suggested a referendum to choose which army officer would lead the country. The revival of Islamist factions began before the outbreak of the war in April 2023, during a period when a transition towards civilian rule was veering off course. The factions had established deep roots in Sudan's ruling apparatus and in the army during Bashir's three decades in power. When army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who became head of Sudan's ruling council shortly after Bashir's overthrow in 2019, staged a coup two years later, he drew on their support. The RSF participated in the coup but was suspicious of the Islamists, and as the RSF and the army moved to protect their interests ahead of another planned transition, tensions erupted into warfare. The RSF quickly seized most of the capital, Khartoum, and made other advances, before the army started to claw back ground, extending its control over eastern and central Sudan. An NCP document shared with Reuters by a senior Islamist official points to a major role for Islamist networks since early on in the fighting. In the document, Islamist operatives lay out their activities to party leaders, taking credit for directly contributing between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters to the army's war effort over the first year of the conflict. They also take credit for training hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians who answered an army call for public mobilisation, of whom more than 70,000 joined operations - a move that greatly bolstered the army's diminished ground forces, according to three military sources from the army or aligned with it. The military sources put estimates of fighters directly linked to the NCP at about 5,000, mainly serving in "special forces" units that have made some of the largest gains for the army, particularly in Khartoum. Other Islamist-trained combatants are serving in an elite, re-constituted unit belonging to the general intelligence service, according to Islamist fighters and military sources. Army sources and Haroun said Islamist factions held no power over the army. Haroun also said he doubted the veracity of the document seen by Reuters and claims of thousands of NCP-linked troops fighting alongside the army, without elaborating. But he acknowledged that it was "no secret that we support the army in response to the commander-in-chief's call, and to ensure our survival". Burhan has said repeatedly he would not allow the outlawed NCP back to power, whilst enabling the return of Islamist civil servants including to such high-level roles as foreign minister and minister of cabinet affairs. The RSF has played up the Islamist connection as the army has minimised it. "The Islamists are the ones who set off this war in order to return to power once again, and they are the ones managing this war," said Mohamed Mukhtar, an advisor to the RSF's leadership. Two military officers familiar with the issue said Burhan was balancing a desire not to cede influence to political figures with his need for military, bureaucratic, and financial support from the Islamist network. The Sudanese Islamist movement has long given members military training, including in what was known under Bashir as the reservist Popular Defence Force (PDF). During the war, semi-independent Islamist units have emerged, most prominently the al-Baraa Ibn Malik brigade, named after an early Islamic figure. One of its leaders, 37-year-old engineer Owais Ghanim, told Reuters he had been wounded three times, participating in crucial battles to break the siege on army bases in the capital earlier this year. Under army orders, members of the brigade have access to light arms, artillery, and drones, he said. "We do not fight for the Islamists to return to power, we fight to push back the (RSF) aggression," said Ghanim. "After Islamists' participation in the war, I expect they will return via elections." Rights monitors have accused the brigade of extrajudicial killings in newly re-captured parts of Khartoum, accusations Ghanim denied. Army leaders have said the brigade and other groups will be integrated into the army after the war, to avoid a repeat of what happened with the RSF, which the armed forces developed to fight an insurgency in Darfur under Bashir. Military sources say that during the war, senior Islamist figures have also used long-standing ties with countries like Iran, Qatar, and Turkey to help the army secure weapons. Haroun said he could neither confirm nor deny this. Any further alignment with those countries, and the expanded influence of the Islamists within Sudan, could strain relations with the United States and further antagonise the UAE, which helped the army and RSF oust Bashir and has sought to roll back political Islam internationally. The army cut diplomatic ties with the UAE earlier this year, accusing it of being the RSF's biggest supporter, a charge the Gulf state denies. The Iranian, Turkish and Emirati foreign ministries and the Qatari international media office did not respond to requests for comment.

Exclusive: Thailand rejects international mediation to end fighting with Cambodia
Exclusive: Thailand rejects international mediation to end fighting with Cambodia

Reuters

time28 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Exclusive: Thailand rejects international mediation to end fighting with Cambodia

BANGKOK, July 25 (Reuters) - Thailand has rejected mediation efforts from third countries to end the ongoing conflict with Cambodia, insisting that Phnom Penh cease attacks and resolve the situation only through bilateral talks, its foreign ministry said on Friday. Simmering border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have flared into open hostilities at multiple locations along the frontline, with exchanges of artillery for a second straight day. At least 16 people, most of them Thai civilians, have died so far in the heaviest fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in over a decade. The United States, China and Malaysia, which is the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, have offered to facilitate dialogue but Bangkok is seeking a bilateral solution to the conflict, Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told Reuters. "I don't think we need any mediation from a third country yet," Nikorndej said in an interview. Cambodia and Thailand accuse each other of starting the conflict early on Thursday at a disputed site, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling along a border where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century. "We stand by our position that bilateral mechanism is the best way out, this is a confrontation between the two countries," Nikorndej said, adding that the Cambodian side must stop violence along the border first. "Our doors are still open." Cambodia's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its Prime Minister Hun Manet asked the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to convene a meeting on the issue, condemning what he called "unprovoked and premeditated military aggression" by Thailand. The body has said it will hold a closed-door meeting to discuss the issue on Friday. The fighting broke out a day after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh on Wednesday and expelled Cambodia's envoy, in response to landmine explosions that injured Thai soldiers. Thai authorities allege the mines had been laid recently by Cambodia, a charge dismissed by Phnom Penh as baseless. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the chair of 10-nation ASEAN of which both Thailand and Cambodia are members, said on Thursday he had spoken to the leaders of both countries and urged them to find a peaceful resolution. "If the ASEAN family wants to facilitate a return to constructive bilateral negotiations, that's welcome as well," Nikorndej said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store