By the end of the first nine months of Trump's second term, the Department of Justice had lost roughly 5,500 employees out of a starting attorney workforce of about 10,000 — a generational evacuation of the institution that prosecutes federal crimes, defends the United States in court, and enforces civil rights law. The departures came through three channels: voluntary resignations, the administration's deferred-resignation buyouts, and at least 200 firings. Replacements have only been hired at a fraction of the pace.
Stacey Young, an 18-year DOJ veteran, founded Justice Connection — a network of former DOJ employees that has become the closest thing to an organized voice for the people leaving. In interviews and in House Judiciary testimony, Young's framing has been consistent: career attorneys are not violating rules and being disciplined. They are leaving — or being fired — because they refused to carry out 'vindictive prosecutions, which are by their nature unconstitutional,' and refused to follow 'illegal or unethical orders.' Young: 'This administration asked them to violate their legal and ethical responsibilities, and they believed the exit was their only option.' She has called vindictive investigations and prosecutions 'symptoms of authoritarianism' and 'this slide into an autocratic regime.'
The operational consequences are concrete. The immigration courts had over 3.3 million pending cases by February 2026. The DOJ has botched several high-profile retaliatory cases — the Comey, James, and Bolton indictments were thrown out in November 2025 when a federal judge ruled the U.S. attorney who brought them was unlawfully appointed. The April 21 SPLC indictment is being defended in pleadings characterized by other former DOJ attorneys as 'frivolous.' On April 15, the DOJ fired at least four prosecutors who had handled FACE Act cases under the Biden administration — Justice Connection's response: 'Firing DOJ attorneys for zealously enforcing the law is unconscionable — it politicizes the department's enforcement actions and punishes dedicated civil servants for doing their jobs.' Young, summing up the trajectory: 'The DOJ is losing countless lawyers… the rule of law is being eroded, and the reputation of the department has really disintegrated.'