Many federal agencies have new leadership that are hostile to the career personnel. For this special episode of
, we go inside the DOJ, or as close as we can, with the help of two of the country’s most respected reporters, Devlin Barrett and Evan Perez, and a recent DOJ exile, Stacey Young, who has an organization to help her erstwhile colleagues.We get a concrete sense of what life and work are like now; the day-to-day relationships between new guard and the old staff; and the state of mind of the workforce.
Thank you for this outstanding conversation about the Justice Department which is so important for all of us to hear. This so-called administration is clearly politicizing the Justice Department to pursue only the interests and revenge cases espoused by DJT rather than all cases that serve the interests of the United States (and its citizens), viewed from a non-political standpoint. I greatly admire those at the DOJ who have chosen to resign rather than make frivolous or otherwise unsustainable arguments in the courts (most notably, in the Eric Adams case), but lament the loss of career dedication and brain drain that has been occurring not only as a result of those resignations, but also by reason of the unwarranted terminations and reassignments of so many talented attorneys at DOJ. The long held values of those working at DOJ, pursuing justice without fear or favor, have been replaced by pursuing this particular "administration's" (DJT and Musk's) agenda, to the extent that there is any agenda whatsoever, apart from exacting DJT's revenge and, equally important, following the Project 2025 playbook. Attorney General Pam Bondi's recent statement to the effect that those attorneys who "disobey orders" for reasons of conscience or otherwise will be terminated (or forced to resign), placed on administrative leave or transferred to lesser positions is not only chilling in itself, but clearly, at least in my view, violates legal ethics and attorneys' oaths.
It should only be crystal clear right now. Our idea of a DOJ is not that of project 2025. This is a hostile take over of the few. Government as usual is out.
People up here in better-off land must stop looking for normalcy. DOJ’ers, don’t quit for conscience. There are no jobs. Accept your pay check, call in sick, say yes then say you forgot … ‘quiet quitting’ until there’s nothing else you can do except publish your experience.
Dem leaders keep saying the people must rise up.. mostly older white Americans made some noise and witty signs, but the seventy million eligables who don’t vote likely didn’t go & don’t care… too many Americans graduate Highschool with a fourth grade reading aptitude, most Americans aren’t college educated and barely make any money. They think everybody ‘up here’ doesn’t care because we let this happen to them.
The educated, able & connected let everybody else down. We did. They are not moved and we are not winning against the invaders.