The Trump administration has moved close to 20 Justice Department officials, sources told Reuters
By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s administration has reassigned about 20 senior career Justice Department lawyers, two sources familiar with the moves told Reuters, as the new president moves hastily to shake the hand of a government that has long incurred his ire.
The group included at least four officials who had each served at the Justice Department for 12 years or more, the first two sources and two additional sources said.
The four officials kept their roles as control of the White House shifted repeatedly between the Democratic and Republican parties, underscoring the unusual nature of the turnaround.
Several attorneys have been moved to the newly formed Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group as Trump tries to stop state and city officials from resisting his plans to crack down on illegal immigration, sources said.
The sanctuary cities office has been tasked with challenging local and state laws and policies that run counter to Trump’s immigration agenda, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
The department has opened two criminal cases against Trump during his four years out of office, one over his attempts to overturn a 2020 election loss and another over his retention of classified documents after leaving office.
“The previous administration and allies across the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power,” said the executive order signed by Trump on Monday, which requires a review of law enforcement and intelligence activities during the Biden administration for indications that they were improperly deployed. against political opponents.
The reassignments are in addition to this week’s firing of four senior officials who worked at the Executive Office of Immigration Review, including its director Mary Cheng and Chief Immigration Judge Sheila McNulty, two of the sources said.
The moves go against the Department’s usual practice, former Justice Department officials said.
“These are career people. They are not political. They are people who have often been in these positions for many, many years or even decades. They have developed real expertise, and that is a great resource for the government,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal a prosecutor who now teaches law at George Washington University.
He called these moves “part of a wider attack on expertise in the Government”.
One of the career officials being moved is Corey Amundson, head of the Department of Public Integrity, which advised the lawyers who led the prosecution of Trump, according to three sources.
Amundson declined to comment.
“Corey Amundson is a talented federal prosecutor and head of the Department as far as I know,” said a former senior Trump DOJ official. “It is a difficult job to manage public integrity, and he has done it admirably for over six years in two administrations with absolute integrity and regardless of politics.”
The other official transferred is George Toscas, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security who oversaw counterintelligence investigations, according to three sources. In court documents, Trump’s lawyers cited Toscas as a supporter of the FBI’s search of Trump’s property in Florida for classified documents.
Toscas was not immediately available for comment.
The third is Eun Young Choi, who led the Justice Department’s cryptocurrency enforcement initiative and was also on the team that prosecuted Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was pardoned by Trump on Tuesday.
Choi was not immediately available for comment.
The fourth is Bruce Swartz, a deputy assistant attorney general who has worked on international law and treaty negotiations. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Reuters was unable to identify the other officials transferred, but the sources said all were career officers who had somewhat senior roles in the department.
