CNN
—
New leaders at the Justice Department, which has been a center of President Donald Trump’s ire because of its two criminal cases filed against him, have moved quickly to reassign at least 20 career officials, effectively sidelining them from senior-level positions where they’ve worked for years, according to multiple sources briefed on the changes.
There has also been a shake-up at key US attorney offices in New York and Washington, DC.
Those who have been sidelined at the DOJ headquarters in Washington include senior lawyers in the criminal division as well as the national security division, which in the past has been insulated from shifting political winds, and prosecutors who work on international affairs, which handles extraditions and immigration matters, the sources said.
In some instances, seasoned career prosecutors were ordered to report in the coming weeks to a new task force. The move is viewed by Justice Department officials as a way to push some of the career lawyers, who are normally protected during transitions between administrations, to consider leaving the department.
Federal civil service regulations generally protect career employees at the Justice Department and other agencies from being reassigned for at least 120 days after new leadership takes over.
However, Trump administration officials appear to be interpreting the 120-day rule to not apply in this instance because the DOJ is currently led by an acting attorney general and deputy attorney general while Pam Bondi, the attorney general nominee, awaits confirmation. Therefore, they reason, new leadership hasn’t yet started, one of the sources said.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The changes could become subject to complaints before the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that is supposed to protect civil servants from political retribution in changes of administrations.
Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, a hardline, socially conservative activist and commentator, is now the acting US attorney.
Martin was an organizer with the “Stop the Steal” movement and was involved in the financing of the January 6, 2021, Trump rally on the Ellipse that occurred directly before the attack on the Capitol. He has also publicly advocated for a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and has raised imposing criminal penalties on women and doctors involved in abortions.
In the Eastern District of New York, career prosecutor John Durham was tapped as interim US attorney. Durham, the son of the former special counsel by the same name who investigated the origin of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign, was the head of the district’s Long Island office. He joined the US attorney’s office in 2005 and has extensive experience prosecuting and overseeing cases involving MS-13 gang members.
And Danielle Sassoon was tapped as the interim head of the Southern District of New York. Sassoon was part of the team that successfully prosecuted FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud and Lawrence Ray, who was convicted of sex trafficking of students at Sarah Lawrence college. Before she joined the office in 2016, Sassoon clerked for two federal judges including Justice Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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