Trump Justice Department exodus hinders prosecutions, ex-officials say

Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY Sun, April 19, 2026 at 7:05 AM UTC

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Since President Donald Trump re-took the Oval Office, the Justice Department has been plagued by accusations that it wasn't transparent about its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and that it has become a weapon for Trump to target his political opponents and critics.

A third major theme at the department in the past 15 months has gotten much less attention, but is no less dramatic: the exodus of thousands of lawyers, including many who had decades of experience at the DOJ.

More than 3,300 attorneys left the Justice Department between Trump's first day back in office and February 2026, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. Meanwhile, only about 800 attorneys have been hired.

The impact of those exits could turn out to be the most lasting, potentially weakening the Justice Department for many years to come, several former longterm DOJ lawyers who worked across areas told USA TODAY.

"When political leaders come into the department and immediately begin acting like tyrants, and purging the people who know how to run things, that's going to have a really destabilizing effect, and it absolutely has," Stacey Young, who worked as a senior attorney in the Civil Division and later in the Civil Rights Division over 18 years, said.

1 / 0Huge banner of Trump unveiled on Justice Department HQWorkers on an aerial lift install a new banner featuring US President Donald Trump on the facade of the US Department of Justice headquarters, Washington, DC, February 19, 2026

Young left the DOJ a few days into the new administration, and has since founded Justice Connection, which supports those who have left and combats what it sees as threats to the rule of law under the Trump administration.

While the Trump administration has beefed up DOJ immigration enforcement, the stream of attorney exits has weakened the department's ability to enforce the law across a range of traditional priorities, including tax enforcement, anti-narcotics efforts, white collar crime, national security, environmental enforcement, and civil rights, former officials told USA TODAY.

DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre told USA TODAY in a statement that the DOJ has more than 10,000 lawyers committed to restoring public safety and upholding the rule of law, and is now "the most efficient Department of Justice in American history."

"Our country has the lowest murder rate in 125 years, we’ve arrested more than 90 key cartel leaders, and removed millions of deadly doses of fentanyl from our streets – all on top of achieving a record 24 successful rulings at the Supreme Court," Baldassarre said.

"President Trump will not waver when lawfully implementing the agenda he was elected on," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told USA TODAY in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi applaud as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a roundtable on public safety at Memphis Air National Guard Base in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., March 23, 2026.'Holy moly!': Mass exodus from attorney ranks

Even the net loss of about 2,500 lawyers doesn't tell the full story, which also includes a massive loss of legal experience in government. Former FBI senior intelligence analyst Philip Fields developed an online tool that breaks down OPM's data from January, 2025-January, 2026, showing that lawyers who left spent, on average, about 14 years at the DOJ, and about 740 held leadership positions.

Lawyers who have been hired are unlikely to have the same type of experience, according to Fields. The data published by OPM shows that new hires generally weren't transfers from another part of the government, he noted.

"That doesn't mean that these people are all fresh out of law school," Fields told USA TODAY. "But... the assumption is that they're going to have far less experience and qualifications for these types of roles."

Some of the departures from the department have been firings.

In Trump's first month back in office, the DOJ fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, POLITICO reported. That same month, it also fired prosecutors who worked on investigations into Trump.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2026.

Some have departed the administration after interference with their work, or out of concern they may be asked to do something unethical.

Several prosecutors resigned after the Trump administration ordered them to drop a bribery case against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Several other prosecutors resigned over the DOJ's reluctance to investigate a federal immigration agent who shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good, and its desire to instead investigate Good's widow, The Minnesota Star Tribune and The New York Times reported.

Many of the departures have been voluntary, if chosen under pressure. Some officials left after the administration attempted to reassign them to different roles, such as working on immigration. Many left under the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, which offered several months of pay-without-work to those who opted to leave, and offered uncertainty for those who remained about whether their jobs were secure.

Gilbert Rothenberg, a former longtime official at the Tax Division − which the Trump administration dissolved in late 2025, shifting tax lawyers to other divisions − said younger lawyers' sense of job security weakened after watching career lawyers be forced out.

"The rank and file saw that, and they go, 'Holy moly! Is my job at risk?'" Rothenberg, who retired from the DOJ in 2019, told USA TODAY.

Demonstrators march through downtown calling for an end to ICE operations in Minnesota on January 30, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protests have sparked up around the Twin Cities area following the deaths of Renee Good on January 7, and Alex Pretti on January 24 by federal immigration agents.

Low morale after the departures, which have increased the workload for those who remain, has also been a driving force for exits, according to some ex-DOJ officials.

"The job is just overwhelming, and it's become untenable for some people," Young said.

Baldassarre of the DOJ said the administration offered deferred resignations to allow employees a chance to leave if they "did not want to aggressively and faithfully tackle crime to protect the American people."

"This has allowed DOJ to run more efficiently and hire new employees who wholeheartedly believe in the mission," she said.

'Cartel leaders are probably laughing at us'

One area is receiving more resources from the Justice Department: immigration. A January, 2025 memo directed DOJ anti-terrorism investigators to assist with Trump's immigration-related initiatives. That same month, career officials in the criminal and national security divisions were reassigned to roles advancing Trump's immigration agenda.

Protesters yell as federal agents drag away a man amid protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Federal Building in Eugene, Oregon on Jan. 27, 2026.

The DOJ prosecuted 32,000 new immigration cases in its first six months, which was nearly triple the number that Biden's administration prosecuted in the same time, according to ProPublica, a nonprofit news site that analyzed data from the DOJ and from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which gets data through Freedom of Information Act requests.

But that may have come at the cost of other areas of law enforcement.

ProPublica found a drop in prosecutions of nearly every other type of crime compared to the Biden administration's first six months.

Baldassarre said the drop partly reflects that the DOJ records on cases that were already closed, and said the DOJ can't vouch for the clearinghouse's data.

"This Department of Justice remains committed to investigating and prosecuting all types of crime, and the number of declinations is a direct result of our efforts to run the agency in a more efficient manner," she said.

A woman holds her dog while addressing protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on September 1, 2025. Demonstrators rallied against ICE, demanding the abolition of the agency and the release of detainees.

The Justice Department brings civil cases, in addition to criminal prosecutions, and there has also been a drop in certain civil enforcement.

In Trump's first year back in office, at least 140 lawyers from the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division – a third of its lawyers – left, according to E&E News, a Politico publication.

In that same time, environmental enforcement actions have collapsed. A December analysis from Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit, found that the division's environmental enforcement section imposed only $15.1 million in civil penalties during the first 11 months of Trump's return to office. The previous year, it brought in $1.88 billion in civil fines.

Andrew Mergen, a former official in the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Section, said the department has shifted lawyers from working on environmental enforcement to defending the administration against lawsuits from activists who allege it's not enforcing or following environmental laws and rules.

"If your agenda is 'drill, baby, drill' or 'mine, baby, mine,' there are going to be groups who are going to sue, and you're going to need to throw bodies at that," he said.

The Trump administration also got rid of the Tax Division, which was created in 1934, in late 2025, shifting its remaining lawyers into the DOJ's existing Civil Division and Criminal Division. In February, an official wrote in a court filing that more than 40% of the lawyers who handle appeals in tax cases had retired, resigned, or been temporarily transferred over the previous year.

In this image, piggy banks rest on top of tax return papers.

Rothenberg said when he was writing budget proposals, he would highlight evidence that for every dollar spent on the DOJ Tax Division, it brought in several times more.

"I've never understood an administration that doesn't want to bulk up the tax group at both IRS and DOJ to raise more money," Rothenberg said. "From a public policy point of view, it's foolish."

The DOJ's Criminal Division has also seen a stream of exits since Trump returned to office.

Joseph Gerbasi, who spent decades in the division, retired in March of 2025 from his role as acting deputy chief for policy in the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, a group that has now been merged into the division's section on money laundering. Only one person is left from what was a five-lawyer policy unit, he told USA TODAY.

"The cartel leaders are probably laughing at us," Gerbasi said. "It's just going to result in fewer prosecutions, fewer extraditions, fewer successful damaging blows to the cartels."

During a joint federal, state, and local drug trafficking investigation, 42.61 kilograms of cocaine, 23.8 grams of crack cocaine, 4.41 kilograms of marijuana, 3.6 grams of MDMA, 36 Fentanyl pills, 8.1 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 1.9 grams of heroin, five suboxone strips, and 11 firearms were seized.

Baldassarre said fighting drug trafficking is one of several top priorities for the DOJ.

"The Department of Justice is acutely focused on protecting our national security, eliminating transnational drug cartels and traffickers, prosecuting criminals, and safeguarding Americans from violent crime," Baldassarre said. "Assisting our partners with immigration enforcement has not deterred our ability to successfully investigate and prosecute other types of crime to keep American citizens safe."

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Three-quarters of civil rights lawyers gone

The Trump administration has also wiped out most of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. The division's new head, Harmeet Dhillon, said on a Breitbart News podcast in August that about 75% of its lawyers – approximately 300 out of 400 – had left in the first seven months of the new administration.

Dhillon intended this statement as a boast, because the Trump administration wants to completely redirect the division's efforts.

Under Trump, the DOJ dropped lawsuits brought under President Joe Biden that accused police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis of violating civil rights. It also abandoned agreements that governed policing practices in those departments going forward.

Instead, the Civil Rights Division is investigating potential racial preferences in employment and university admissions, religious liberty issues, and local limitations on gun ownership.

Gerald Jacobs reacts while standing in solidarity as speakers talked about the Louisville Consent Decree and the Department of Justice regarding the Breonna Taylor case during Breewayy Day Wednesday, May 28, 2025 in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In front is Bianca Austin, aunt of Breonna Taylor.

Conservative supporters say these shifts are legitimate policy changes.

"The changes and re-allocation of resources at the Justice Department reflect the prosecutorial priorities of this Administration, as they do in any administration," Zach Smith, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in a statement to USA TODAY. "For example, the Civil Rights Division has made clear that it will prioritize enforcing the Constitution’s guarantee of colorblind treatment for all Americans."

Patrick Kent, a former DOJ Civil Rights Division lawyer who exited the department in 2025, said the massive loss of personnel will make it hard for a new administration to quickly pivot back.

"Even when there is ultimately a change in administration, you're not going to replace three quarters of lawyers who had served years, if not decades," Kent told USA TODAY. "The trust by the communities where we simply stopped enforcing our investigations is lost."

'Unfathomable': Judges question Trump administration's compliance and honesty

Amidst the drastic changes, judges are increasingly expressing frustration at Justice Department attorneys who have failed to meet deadlines or failed to ensure the administration complies with court orders. Some judges have even questioned DOJ lawyers' honesty.

Minnesota federal Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, a President George W. Bush appointee, wrote in a Feb. 26 court order that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated 210 orders across 143 separate cases.

"Increasingly, this Court has had to resort to using the threat of civil contempt to force ICE to comply with orders," Schiltz wrote. "The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again and again and again—to force the United States government to comply with court orders."

Individuals walk through the hallway at U.S. immigration court in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 15, 2026.

Just Security, a law and policy publication based at New York University's law school, identified 34 separate cases in which courts expressed concerns about noncompliance with judicial orders and 90 cases in which courts expressed distrust of government information and representations during the first year of the current administration.

Young said DOJ lawyers are also increasingly requesting deadline extensions or otherwise missing deadlines, as the pressures of understaffing mount.

Just this week, California federal Judge Troy L. Nunley, a President Barack Obama appointee, sanctioned a DOJ lawyer in an immigration case for multiple failures to meet deadlines and follow orders.

"While the Court recognizes that mistakes can occur, repeated violations of court orders cannot be excused as mere oversight," Nunley wrote in the April 15 order, imposing a $250 fine.

The Trump administration says the judges who have criticized it are the ones that need more scrutiny.

"The only group losing credibility are the radical, left-wing lower court judges issuing unlawful rulings to advance their own agenda," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told USA TODAY in a statement.

Former Department of Justice senior trial attorney Stacey Young testifies during a hearing organized by Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate about the Trump administration's treatment of the Justice Department and law firms who act in cases disliked by the president, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025.

Jackson said many district court rulings that went against the administration were later overturned on appeal, and "President Trump’s entire Administration is lawfully implementing the America First agenda he was elected to enact."

The administration "will continue to comply with lawful court rulings and appeal those lawless opinions of radical left-wing district court judges," she said.

Baldassarre of the DOJ said the administration "complies with court orders and is committed to enforcing our nation’s immigration laws."

Despite the administration's defenses, some fear the DOJ's reputation is taking a hit in the courts that will be hard to win back.

"You have judges today questioning whether they can adhere to what a DOJ attorney tells them in court, and that's just unfathomable to me," Rothenberg said.

'Overwhelmed': DOJ hiring struggles

Activists protest outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia's Bryan Courthouse during the arraignment of former FBI Director James Comey on October 08, 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia.

The DOJ has traditionally attracted the cream of the crop when hiring for attorney openings. Yet now, it's struggling to attract nearly so many top candidates, according to former officials.

"It used to be that you'd get hundreds or thousands of applications for one attorney opening. And now we're seeing offices in some cases beg former lawyers, lawyers who left the offices, to come back," Young said.

Mergen said recruitment to the DOJ had become harder over his decades there, as government shutdowns created anxiety about working at the department, and as nonprofits became more competitive in their salaries. When he left the department at the end of 2022 to take up an environmental law teaching position at Harvard, he planned to recruit talented young litigators into the DOJ. Now, he worries that young lawyers who join the DOJ could be caught up in ethically questionable episodes that could damage their careers.

"I came here to be an evangelist for federal government work, and I'm now in a position where I am extremely cautious about how I talk about sending people to work in the federal government," Mergen told USA TODAY.

Rothenberg fears that politicization at the Justice Department is impacting recruitment even in areas that have been traditionally regarded as the most non-political, such as tax litigation.

Former FBI Director James Comey is sworn in prior to testifying before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017.

The DOJ has pursued prosecutions against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after the president publicly called for it. Both cases were dismissed. The department has also opened investigations into other Trump opponents and critics, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D–California, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and six members of Congress who urged military service members not to obey illegal orders, without saying what those might be.

The department has also erected a banner of Trump on the side of its main building in Washington, D.C.

"The DOJ used to have a lot of institutional importance, and it was not the president's law firm, it was the people's law firm. And people were attracted to that," Rothenberg said.

Gerbasi said potential attorneys for the DOJ's Criminal Division might be worried they could be asked to do something unethical, such as indicting someone without sufficient evidence.

"It's the fear, the uncertainty, the lack of professionalism at the highest levels of the department, and it's people being unwilling to go to work for a political machine," Gerbasi said.

A banner of U.S. President Donald Trump hangs from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026.

During the last administration, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsels – DOJ lawyers with heightened independence – to investigate allegations against Trump, then-President Joe Biden, and Biden's son, Hunter. Special counsels brought criminal charges against Trump and Hunter Biden. The cases against Trump were dropped after he won the 2024 election.

DOJ officials and Trump himself sometimes point to the charges he faced as a reason for targeting his political opponents now.

"Unlike the previous Administration that baselessly targeted political opponents, this Department of Justice is restoring law and order and will hold accountable any individual or group that commits a crime," the DOJ's Baldassarre said.

'Years and years to repair'

Restoring the DOJ's reputation in court and attractiveness to the best lawyers in the country may be a much slower process, if it happens at all.

Part of the problem is there is diminished confidence that the DOJ will be somewhat stable across future presidential administrations, according to Kent.

"How do you have that talent come back if they just know in four years there might be another administration change and we go right through the cycle again?" Kent wondered.

No other president has openly told his attorney general to target specific critics in the way Trump has, according to Rothenberg. Yet when Trump did so, his attorney general at the time, Pam Bondi, obliged.

Building back an institutional culture of independence from the White House in the wake of those actions won't be quick, Rothenberg said.

"When the culture has changed to that degree, it's going to take many years for the culture to change and go back to where it was, where DOJ was independent from the president in terms of day-to-day operations," he said.

Young said she expects the consequences she is seeing − cratered morale, understaffing, diminished job security, weakened job satisfaction – to extend far beyond the current administration, making it harder to effectively enforce the nation's laws.

"All of that will take years and years to repair, if it can be repaired at all," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Make America Safe Again? DOJ sees mass exodus of lawyers under Trump

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