Over the last few days I know I read a short post from someone concerning the Department of Justice being understaffed, but I can’t find it. Here’s an earlier post on The Hill alluding to this situation:
Welcome to the dumbing down of the Department of Justice, where the smartest and most experienced prosecutors are resigning or being dismissed; partisan, substandard lawyers are replacing them; and the department’s mission is reshaped to serve the president’s political and vengeance agenda — and to investigate bizarre conspiracy theories.
Ten experienced, high-quality federal prosecutors left the department over its decision to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in an apparent quid quo pro for his support for Trump’s immigration crackdown. Over two-thirds of the attorneys in the department’s Civil Rights Division have left because its mission has been twisted from enforcing civil rights to enforcing Trump’s executive orders. Trump aides forced out most of the lawyers in the Public Integrity Section because prosecuting corrupt Washington officials evidently is less important than deporting undocumented immigrants who work hard, pay taxes and have committed no crimes.
Who is filling the vacuum? Start with Ed Martin Jr., a Missouri lawyer and conservative activist with no prosecutorial experience, who is the subject of pending disciplinary proceedings and who had once been found in contempt for failing to obey a court order. Trump nominated him to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, but he proved too extreme even for Republican senators. Trump had to withdraw his nomination, but Martin was then installed in multiple high-ranking Justice Department roles that bypass Senate confirmation.
Since then, several Trump-nominated U. S. Attorneys have been rejected by the courts as not being properly nominated; Jeanine Pirro of Fox News fame and now US Attorney for Washington, DC, keeps failing to secure grand jury indictments, suggesting incompetence or a tin ear; and, in general, AG Pam Bondi’s minions continually fail in court.
All of this has made me wonder how other Departments of the government are doing, manpower-wise. We all remember DOGE demanding many personnel should be dismissed, and then begging them to return. So … how’s Treasury doing? Defense? Agriculture? Commerce?
Is our deflating government approaching the flap about stage, unable to function, leaving the President even more incompetent to the demands of leadership, such as his planned invasion of Greenland?
And, finally, I wonder if Mayor Frey of Minneapolis, or Governor Walz of Minnesota, currently occupied with ICE agents who are harassing citizens, have offered those agents asylum, although that’d be logistically difficult to guarantee; however, Canada might be capable of making such an offer to ICE agents worried about simply resigning.
Hmmmmmmm.
