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Washington Post
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump's DOJ has fired dozens of prosecutors, upending decades-old norm
The Department of Justice under the Trump administration has fired dozens of career prosecutors during the past six months, making the dismissal of federal attorneys — generally a move reserved for cases of misconduct — almost commonplace. The dismissals often came without warning and have affected more than 40 prosecutors, based on reporting by The Washington Post and a tally of public information. The total number of lawyers, agents and support staff DOJ has fired since the administration began in January includes dozens more people, according to Justice Connection, an advocacy group for former Justice Department employees. The group estimates that more than 200 career employees have been fired across the department and its component agencies, which include the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Among those fired was federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James B. Comey, who lost her job Wednesday. The reason for her firing was not immediately clear. She had worked on high-profile matters such as the criminal cases of Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and the recent trial of Sean Combs, the music mogul known as Diddy. Others the Justice Department dismissed include career attorneys who worked on the prosecutions of Trump and those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A spokesperson for the Justice Department offered no comment on the firings but noted the agency expects to save $470 million after more than 4,000 employees accepted buyout offers. The terminations have alarmed staff members and observers who worry that agency officials are engaged in a broad campaign to erode civil service protections, bolster the political interests of the president and weaken the rule of law. The firings — often made without explanation — aren't normal. Prosecutors and other federal employees are typically fired only when they do something improper or fail to perform their duties. ''Unusual' is the wrong word — it's unheard of,' said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group focused on strengthening the federal workforce. Some former prosecutors and experts say the departures have weakened the Justice Department's front lines, prompted other prosecutors to leave on their own and rattled those who remain. They question the legality of the firings and say the administration's approach risks creating a Justice Department stacked with a mix of loyalists and workers too cowed to speak up when they see improprieties. After she was fired, Comey told her former colleagues not to succumb to fear. 'Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought,' she wrote in a note to them. 'Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power.' The firings account for only a small portion of the departures from the Justice Department, where many more have resigned or retired after they were demoted or moved into different jobs, according to employees and former employees. The National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys said in a statement the firings 'will make it far more difficult for DOJ to recruit and retain qualified attorneys, inhibit employees from executing their constitutional duties out of fear of reprisal, and will ultimately make our society less fair, safe, and secure.' If unchecked, the situation could lead future presidents to throw out hundreds of prosecutors and replace them with supporters, creating an amped-up version of the spoils system of the 1800s that allowed presidents to stock government offices with their supporters, analysts said. In 1883, Congress created a system to hire employees based on merit and prevent their firing for political reasons after a disgruntled job seeker assassinated President James Garfield two years earlier. 'If [prosecutors] are there simply to please the boss, then I think we are entering a dangerous time,' said Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor who was U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan under President Barack Obama. Former prosecutor Michael Gordon said he was given a stellar job review two days before he was fired this year. While he was preparing a witness for trial shortly before 5 p.m. on a Friday, he was handed a sheet of paper saying he was being let go without explanation. He was taken aback but instinctively knew why: He was among the prosecutors who had worked on the Jan. 6 cases. 'What's shocking is that the Department of Justice — the part of the government that's supposed to uphold the law — is instead openly defying it, openly thumbing its nose at the very laws that it's supposed to enforce,' he said. 'They're prioritizing revenge over public safety.' President George W. Bush faced accusations of injecting politics into prosecutors' offices when his administration ousted nine of the U.S. attorneys he had appointed. The controversy then was over politically appointed officials who serve at the pleasure of the president — not the rank-and-file prosecutors who now find themselves at risk. Career prosecutors hold extraordinary power. They can destroy reputations by simply issuing grand jury subpoenas. They can seek to put people away for years or, in the ultimate act of government authority, pursue taking away someone's life as a form of punishment. 'If the public doesn't trust that those decisions are being made on an apolitical basis, then it does harm to the institution,' said Paul Charlton, the U.S. attorney in Arizona who was fired under Bush. An internal Justice Department review found the agency used a flawed and arbitrary process to drive out Charlton and other U.S. attorneys. But those experiences are 'nothing like' the recent dismissals of career prosecutors, said Carol Lam, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California who was part of the Bush-era purge. Prosecutors now have to worry about their work being undermined at every stage, she said. 'Even if you were allowed to start the case, would you be able to continue it with this person then to be given a blanket pardon?' she asked. It used to be that rank-and-file DOJ lawyers could do the job, she said, and the department would stand behind them as long as they acted ethically. 'That no longer is the case,' Lam said. 'Now the criteria is: Is this going to help the president or not?' 'You don't take an oath of allegiance to the administration or the president of the United States,' she added. 'This disruption of that ethical standard means that this Department of Justice bears no resemblance of what it was before.' The recent firings range from top-level career officials overseeing key Justice Department divisions to line prosecutors in far-flung U.S. attorneys' offices around the country who caught the attention of Trump or his political appointees. Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, was fired in March after his work on a case against Fatburger founder Andrew Wiederhorn drew the ire of Trump confidante and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer, who advocated for Schleifer's termination online. He was fired via an email from the White House, and is now challenging his dismissal with the Merit Systems Protection Board. That same weekend, the department fired Reagan Fondren, a career attorney in Memphis, who'd been elevated to lead the U.S. attorney's office there on an acting basis. No explanation was given. Some have described their terminations in posts on social media. 'It was a shock,' Adam Cohen, the former head of a key Justice Department task force overseeing drug and gang investigations, wrote on LinkedIn. He was fired in March, 18 hours after officials sent out a memo he'd prepared bearing the deputy attorney general's signature, he said. Joseph Tirrell, the department's senior ethics attorney, was fired last week. He wrote in a note announcing his departure on LinkedIn that the oath he took as a prosecutor 'did not come with the caveat that I need only support the Constitution when it is easy or convenient.' In recent instances, the Justice Department is telling prosecutors they are being let go under Article II, the part of the Constitution that vests the power of the executive branch in the president. Mark Zaid, an attorney representing some of the fired Justice Department employees, described Trump's view of Article II authority as, 'I'm the king. You all work for me — not anymore.' Trump has taken an expansive view of his powers knowing many of the Supreme Court justices share that sentiment. Zaid, who has been working in employment law for more than 30 years, said he's seen nothing like the recent firings across the federal government. 'All they did was their job, just like they did all prior years in multiple administrations, oftentimes during the first Trump administration,' he said. 'And now all of a sudden, they're guilty of something, which is usually associational.' Observers raised the prospect that Trump's approach could thrust the government back more than 100 years, when a patronage system rewarded political allies with jobs and punished political opponents by taking away their livelihoods. Stier, of the Partnership for Public Service, said the dangers were much higher now because of the threats of nuclear war, cyberattacks and environmental disasters. 'We aren't in the 19th century,' he said. 'We are actually in a world that is so much more dangerous, complicated, faster-moving than the 19th century that the implications of a spoils system are a lot larger for us.' Perry Stein and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Congresswoman's charges fuel claims of intimidation of Trump critics
In April, the Justice Department arrested a Wisconsin judge accused of helping an undocumented immigrant try to evade arrest by federal authorities. Three weeks later, the Secret Service launched a probe into former FBI director James B. Comey over a social media post it said amounted to a threat against President Donald Trump. And this week, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey charged a member of Congress with assault after she was accused of slamming her forearms against federal agents. Trump officials have said their moves are about ending the politicization of law enforcement and holding everyone to the same standard of justice, regardless of title or status. But Democrats and some legal scholars say they carry a message. Especially alarming to some is the recent criminal charge leveled against a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey. 'It's an attempt to intimidate potential critics,' said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Law School. Chemerinsky said he can't think of a precedent for arresting a judge, charging a member of Congress and investigating the former head of the FBI, noting that prosecutions of public officials typically focus on corruption. 'This is arresting a congresswoman for interfering with federal law enforcement,' he said. 'I can't think of an instance where we've seen something like that.' Others, such as Eugene Volokh, an emeritus First Amendment professor at UCLA, said he believes there are 'plausible arguments' that the judge and congresswoman may have broken the law. Trump, who was indicted in two federal cases after his first term ended, promised as a candidate last year to remedy what he portrayed as a criminal justice system weaponized against him when Joe Biden was president. (Biden said he did not involve himself in the cases.) Trump defended his administration's actions on Tuesday. A White House spokesman, Harrison Fields, said that unlike Democrats, the administration is focused on investigating crimes regardless of who commits them. The clashes reflect a politically charged moment, with many Democrats shut out of power in Washington and eager to challenge the Trump administration in vocal and visible ways. Trump and his supporters often adopt a tough posture, relishing the arrests in social media posts and cable TV appearances. On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) with assaulting two federal agents outside an immigration center in Newark during a scuffle this month. Trump accused McIver of being 'out of control' and said 'the days of that crap are over.' 'It's super unfortunate that we have come to this point in America that this is what we see happening to leaders in America who are trying to do their jobs,' McIver said Tuesday on CNN. 'We've seen this administration come after and attack leaders for trying to do their jobs. It's political intimidation, and I will not be intimidated.' Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested at the same event and was initially charged with trespassing. On Monday, Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said she would seek to dismiss the charges against Baraka, who is running in the Democratic primary for governor. The judge in that case has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday afternoon. On May 9, McIver visited Delaney Hall detention center in Newark with two other House Democrats for a congressional oversight tour of the facility. Baraka was arrested for trespassing amid a chaotic scene involving him, masked law enforcement officials and the three House members. Video released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver rushing after the agents as they attempted to arrest Baraka and shouting to protesters outside to 'surround the mayor.' At one point in the video, McIver's elbows appear to make contact with a masked officer amid the crush of the crowd. McIver went on an hour-long tour of the facility with the other House members afterward. Habba, in her statement Monday, said her office gave McIver 'every opportunity' to resolve the matter without bringing criminal charges but that McIver refused. Habba did not elaborate on what those opportunities entailed, and her office declined to comment further on McIver's case. McIver told CNN that Habba had asked her to admit to doing something she didn't do and that she refused to do so. Habba and other Justice Department officials cast the case as an effort to stand up for federal agents trying to do their jobs. 'This administration will always protect those who work tirelessly to keep America safe,' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a social media post Monday night. Habba, in announcing the charges against McIver, maintained that 'no one is above the law — politicians or otherwise.' There could be more fallout from the incident. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey) told reporters Tuesday there was a 'possibility' she and Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-New Jersey) could face charges because of the incident. Coleman said attorneys from the members of Congress would meet soon with prosecutors. 'So we don't know what she has intended,' she said. 'But we're ready for whatever it might be.' Republicans said Democrats need to follow the law. 'Members are free to do what they want, but they run consequences when they do,' said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma). 'They don't have any special legal protection, nor should they.' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) suggested voting to expel McIver from the House, while others have pushed for voting to formally censure her. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has not indicated whether he would consider taking action against her. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) told Democrats during their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday that they would make sure that the 'so-called U.S. attorney' never gets confirmed by the Senate. Habba, a former personal lawyer for Trump, has not been formally nominated. U.S. attorney candidates have typically been subject to the 'blue slip' tradition in the Senate, which means their nominations are effectively killed if either of the two senators representing their home state do not approve of them. New Jersey's senators — Cory Booker and Andy Kim — are both Democrats who seem unlikely to approve her. 'She's an incredibly dangerous, politicized person in that role,' Kim said on Tuesday. This year's race for governor in New Jersey is seen as a high-profile gauge of voter sentiment about Trump. Like other Democrats in the primary, Baraka is pitching himself as someone who can push back forcefully on the administration as well as tackle local issues. 'This is really dangerous,' said Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-New Jersey), who is running for governor and previously served as a federal prosecutor in the office that Habba now oversees. 'McIver is a member of Congress. She was performing oversight duty. For Habba to politically charge her and … engage in a political type of assault on a member of Congress is really a dangerous path.' The charges against McIver were filed less than a month after federal officials arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan at the courthouse where she presides. Hours later, FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo online of the judge being led away in handcuffs below the phrase, 'No one is above the law.' Dugan has been indicted on charges of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest. She is accused of directing an immigrant who appeared before her to exit her courtroom through a side door instead of directly into a hallway where agents were waiting to arrest him. The agents caught up to him outside the courthouse. Dugan has asked the court to throw out the charges, arguing that federal prosecutors have no power to charge her for how she conducts business in her courtroom. Last week, the administration accused Comey, a Trump adversary, of threatening the president by posting a photo online of shells on a beach spelling out the phrase '86 47.' Trump is the 47th president, and '86' means to ban or remove someone and can be used as slang for killing a person. The Secret Service launched an investigation and on Friday interviewed Comey, who had already taken down his social media post. Comey has said he meant to spread only a political message. Volokh, the emeritus professor at UCLA, said he was skeptical of the need to investigate Comey. But he saw the Dugan and McIver cases differently. 'So much depends on the facts, but as a general matter, I think that these prosecutions, if the facts are as the government alleges, may very well be quite legitimate,' he said. Aziz Huq, a constitutional scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, said investigators, prosecutors and investigators typically exercise restraint when reviewing cases involving free speech because they do not want to trample on anyone's rights. That's not so with recent decisions, he said. 'Rather than seeing caution in the use of these tools, we're seeing the opposite, which is the aggressive and arguably actually reckless use of these tools against individuals who are seen as being adverse to this administration,' he said. Hannah Knowles and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
New York Times
16-05-2025
- New York Times
What Does ‘86' Mean? Term Referenced in Comey's Social Media Post Has Changed Over Time
In promising to investigate James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, Trump administration officials pointed to his apparent reference to a slang term on Instagram, describing it as a call for the president's assassination. Mr. Comey's photo showed shells on a beach arranged to spell '86 47' with the caption: 'Cool shell formation on my beach walk.' The '47' was presumed to refer to President Trump, the United States' 47th president, and '86' is a term commonly used by restaurants to signify when they are out of a menu item, or by bars and in military and intelligence circles to throw something — or someone — out. But in some contexts, the term has evolved to mean something more sinister: to eliminate or kill. According to lexicologists, the term '86' began as diner shorthand in the early 20th century. 'In the '30s and '40s, there were numerical codes used in diners,' said Jesse Sheidlower, an adjunct professor at Columbia University whose specialty is slang. 'Eighty-one is a glass of water, 82 is two glasses of water, 89 is a pretty girl, and 86 means you're out of something.' Even today, it is not unusual to see the number 86 on a menu chalkboards in the dining room and white boards in kitchens. Slang definitions tend to slide around, though, and terms can mean different things depending on who is using them. The most common modern usage of '86' is as a verb, meaning to throw out, dismiss or eject. Customers who are tossed out of an establishment for being too drunk, having a history of walking out on the check or generally acting obnoxious, for example, are said to be 86'd. And like many slang terms having to do with disappearance, '86' has evolved in some contexts to refer to deliberate elimination. This is the sense the noir crime writer James Ellroy meant when he wrote, in his 2021 novel 'Widespread Panic,' 'it all got tangled up, and poor Janey got 86'd'.' 'Yes, it can mean 'to murder,'' Mr. Sheidlower added. 'But without any very specific indication that that's the intended meaning, you'd never assume that. The notion that Comey was suggesting this is completely preposterous.' Still, Mr. Trump and his top advisers interpreted Mr. Comey's post in that light, even though he subsequently asserted that he 'didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence' and took down the initial photo. The pair have a tangled history, dating to Mr. Comey's decision in 2017 to announce that the F.B.I. was investigating the 2016 Trump campaign and whether it had colluded with Russia to influence the election. Mr. Trump fired him months later. An inspector general's report later found Mr. Comey had violated department policies with how he handled memos he took of his conversations with Mr. Trump before his firing, but he was never charged. Mr. Trump also accused Mr. Comey of treason. When Mr. Trump learned in 2019 that the Justice Department would not file charges against Mr. Comey, he called one aide after another, asking if they agreed with him that Mr. Comey should have been prosecuted. Mr. Trump became so enraged over that decision, as well as other matters, that he took the TV remote control in his private dining room and threw it at a credenza along a wall, according to reporting in the book 'Confidence Man.' In a Fox News interview on Friday, Mr. Trump still appeared to harbor ill will toward Mr. Comey. Criticizing him as a 'dirty cop,' the president accused Mr. Comey of having called for his offing. 'He wasn't very competent but he was competent enough to know what that meant,' Mr. Trump said in a Fox News interview partly broadcast on Friday, adding: 'He's calling for the assassination of the president.' In his second Instagram post, Mr. Comey said he had assumed the shells spelled out 'a political message.' But Mr. Trump's officials doubled down. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, pointed out during a Fox News interview late Thursday that Mr. Comey had spent his entire career prosecuting the kind of mobsters and gangsters who would commonly use '86' in its most deadly sense, as she accused him of 'issuing a hit on President Trump.' Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, wrote on social media that Mr. Comey had 'just called for the assassination' of the president, and said that her department and the Secret Service had launched an investigation. In a separate post, Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said his agency would 'provide all necessary support.' 'Green's Dictionary of Slang' cites the first definition of '86' as the restaurant usage, and gives 'to kill, murder; to execute judicially' as the second meaning. 'It broadly means unavailability and thus ending,' Mr. Sheidlower said, noting that murderous connotations can attach to almost any slang term having to do with disappearance. ''End' itself can be used to mean 'to kill.' ' Slippery meanings are an inherent danger of slang, which can mean different things depending on who's using it. 'There can be ambiguity because what other people think and what you think don't have to match,' Mr. Sheidlower said. 'That's the problem with language.'
