Nearly two-thirds of the Justice Department lawyers tasked with defending President Donald Trump’s policies in court have resigned in frustration, according to a bombshell report from Reuters.
Since the 2024 election, 69 out of 110 attorneys from the DOJ’s Federal Programs Branch — the unit responsible for managing lawsuits against the federal government — have exited their posts, leaving behind what insiders describe as a deeply demoralized and depleted team.
One former DOJ lawyer told Reuters that many staffers joined the department to “defend aspects of our constitutional system,” but found themselves instead “participating in the project of tearing it down.”
Attorneys have been grappling with a flood of legal challenges to Trump’s sweeping and often controversial agenda: from efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship and fast-track migrant deportations, to defunding elite universities and reshaping federal agencies. Four former lawyers said they quit specifically over concerns that several of these moves violated the Constitution.
At least three DOJ lawyers also told Reuters they resigned after fearing they might be pressured to misrepresent facts in court or breach legal ethics—a red line they refused to cross.
While it’s common for some turnover to occur between presidential administrations, legal experts say the current wave is unprecedented in the middle of a single term.
“We’ve never had an administration pushing the legal envelope so quickly, so aggressively, and across such a broad range of government policies and programs,” said Peter Keisler, former head of the DOJ’s Civil Division under President George W. Bush.
The situation has grown so dire that Trump’s administration reportedly lifted its own federal hiring freeze — at least for DOJ — in a scramble to fill the widening staffing gaps.
In response to questions from Reuters, the White House did not directly address the resignations. Instead, spokesperson Harrison Fields issued a sharp rebuke, saying:
“Any sanctimonious career bureaucrat expressing faux outrage over the President’s policies while sitting idly by during the rank weaponization by the previous administration has no grounds to stand on.”
The DOJ, meanwhile, defended the unit’s remaining staffers, describing them as under siege by an “unprecedented” wave of lawsuits and praising their success in defending Trump’s policies in the courts — including at the Supreme Court level.
“The Department has defeated many of these lawsuits… and will continue to defend the President’s agenda to keep Americans safe,” a DOJ spokesperson said.