berg80
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- Oct 28, 2017
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Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent
President Trump’s upheaval of the federal government has led to an exodus of more than 10,000 lawyers since the beginning of 2025, a striking loss of legal talent that has left some agencies pushing to find attorneys to carry out his agenda.Roughly one in five lawyers who worked in the government at the end of 2024 had left by March of this year, according to a New York Times analysis of federal employment data.
Along with the usual retirements and turnover in the federal work force, the last year saw deep staffing cuts and the resignations of some staff members who objected to Mr. Trump’s policies. Their departures show how rapidly the president has eroded the image of the federal government as the gold standard for lawyers seeking public service roles.
Instead, many of those looking for such work are flocking to the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and nonprofits that are challenging administration policies in the courts, boosting Mr. Trump’s opponents with seasoned lawyers.
“There’s all this awareness that people in the federal government are dissatisfied, are angry, are frustrated, and want no part of it,” said Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, who has hired 22 lawyers from across the federal government in the last year. “That’s translating directly to people saying, ‘I want to be part of organizations that actually operate with integrity, that people want to be a part of, that people feel good about doing the right thing.’”
Wariness of the Trump administration is also palpable inside law schools, where many aspiring lawyers who would have once jumped at the chance to hold a federal government job are seeking alternative paths, according to faculty members and students.
Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent
The departure of more than 10,000 federal lawyers has left some agencies without sufficient staff and has boosted the ranks of state attorneys general offices and advocacy groups.
One unfortunate consequence for the nation is the weakening of the DoJ. Both from the intentional purge of experienced DoJ employees who worked on investigations of trump's criminal acts but also those who were disgusted with his weaponization of the dept. and resigned.
I can already hear the reflexive response from trump loyalists. "Good riddance." Good riddance to those who didn't want to be part of vindictive prosecutions of folks like Comey, James, and Powell. Good riddance to those who thought the regime should not be in violation of the law trump signed, the Epstein File Transparency Act. Good riddance to those who object to the stonewalling of the Good and Pretti investigations and to the behavior of ICE agents that lead to their deaths.
We will never know about the criminals who got away with their crimes because the DoJ is focused on things like retribution against E. Jean Carroll who had the audacity to beat trump in court, twice. The DoJ being yet another government agency that will have to be repaired so it can return to its primary function of protecting the American people, not acting as trump's personal law firm.
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