Justice Department Hiring Attorneys Seen As ‘Loyal’ To Trump

The Justice Department is assembling a team of lawyers prepared to defend the most controversial elements of the agenda of President Donald Trump in court.

As part of the effort, the department has dismissed career attorneys considered obstacles and brought in dozens of political appointees committed to advancing the president’s priorities.

Every president brings in staffers who are considered “loyal” or on board with the commander-in-chief’s political objectives, and Trump is not acting outside of his authority.

“The new hires are already appearing on behalf of the government to defend Trump’s efforts to remake immigration policy and the federal workforce and to expand the powers of the presidency,” the Post report said. “They sometimes sit in front of judges alone, without the cadre of veteran attorneys who typically show up for big cases.”

As he continues criticizing “activist” judges for impeding his agenda, Trump is considering Emil Bove, a former defense lawyer and Justice Department official, for a U.S. appeals court position. This is a contentious nomination.

Trump is considering Bove, 44, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

There are currently two openings on the court, which makes it more likely that Trump would propose Bove’s name. If confirmed, he would be appointed to the federal bench for life.

“Prior to his installation at the Justice Department, Bove spent nearly 10 years as a U.S. prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. He also defended Trump in two of his criminal trials following his first term in the White House. In each of these roles and at DOJ, Bove’s hard-charging tactics have solidified his reputation as a fierce, loyal and, at times, aggressive leader,” Fox News noted.

The Justice Department is hiring some experienced attorneys with prestigious resumes.

Since January, more than 250 attorneys in the Justice Department’s civil rights division have departed, been moved, or accepted a deferred resignation offer, according to an estimate supplied to the Guardian by sources familiar with the situation. The huge reduction in personnel demonstrates how Donald Trump is dismantling the federal agency in charge of enforcing federal civil rights laws.

Approximately 235 attorneys in the division’s civil enforcement sections have accepted deferred resignations or left the Justice Department, while another 20 have been reassigned or detailed to perform other duties within the agency, such as handling public records requests and internal agency complaints.

According to a conservative estimate supplied to the Guardian, the division’s civil enforcement sections, which handle the majority of its work, had around 365 attorneys in January. After a deadline of April 28 to accept a postponed resignation offer, around 105 remain.

The almost 70% drop of attorneys occurs as the Trump administration attempts to restructure the civil rights division, which was established in 1957 to enforce US federal civil rights legislation. Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump ally who took over the division in April, has made it clear that the division’s focus will be on enforcing Trump’s priorities, such as detecting voter fraud (which is extremely rare), preventing discrimination against white people in college admissions, and limiting transgender people’s rights.

President Donald Trump has made another appointment that has sent Democrats into a frenzy.

On Thursday, the president announced the appointment of Judge Jeanine Pirro, co-host of the Fox News show “The Five,” to be the interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.

The hires are part of the Trump administration’s broader push to diminish the influence of career staff across the executive branch and replace them with personnel aligned with the president’s ideological vision.

Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said in a statement: “Attorney General Bondi’s Department of Justice is helping execute the agenda President Trump ran and won on: arresting and prosecuting criminals, seizing deadly drugs, ending the weaponization of justice, and protecting the authority of the executive branch from judicial overreach.”