The Justice Department Had 36 Lawyers Fighting Corruption Full-Time. Under Trump, It's Down to Two.
A good number of cases are now being ignored due to these staff cuts.
The Public Integrity Section is the latest casualty in the administrations attacks on Nixon-era good-government reforms.
The Justice Department Had 36 Lawyers Fighting Corruption Full-Time. Under Trump, Itâs Down to Two. www.notus.org/courts/doj-p...
— Jim (@toyotabedzrock.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T10:15:20.305Z
https://www.notus.org/courts/doj-public-integrity
When Donald Trump took office eight months ago, the Department of Justice had 36 experienced attorneys assigned full-time to investigate corrupt politicians and police officers.
Today it has two.
All the other lawyers in the Justice Departments Public Integrity Section have either quit under pressure, resigned in protest or been detailed to other matters across the nation, according to several sources who spoke with NOTUS. The section has also lost all but one of more than a dozen paralegals.
To me, it just screams that public corruption cases are no longer a priority of DOJ, said Andrew Tessman, a prosecutor who left the Justice Department this month. I cannot understand why we would want to restrict that section.
Sources with knowledge of the sections operations say the reduction in staff means it can no longer advise the 94 U.S. attorneys offices around the country on how to build cases against crooked government officials let alone prosecute new cases on its own.