Since Trump‘s return to the White House, the U.S. Justice Department has experienced a large-scale “leave-off” wave, with many federal prosecutors leaving, so much so that some jurisdictions cannot function normally and need to temporarily borrow personnel from other departments, even posting emergency recruitments online. The reason for this is that the political agenda pushed by the current government, the political struggles launched, and the professional conduct of legal practitioners have come into fundamental conflict.
According to the U.S. New York Times on Sunday, at the end of January this year, former Attorney General Bundy‘s chief of staff, Ms. Mizzler, posted a recruitment notice on social media X, saying: “If you are a legal worker interested in becoming a federal assistant prosecutor and supporting President Trump‘s crime-fighting cause, please contact me.” The media said that under normal circumstances, recruitment work for federal prosecutors cannot be conducted in private on social platforms, and recruitment parties will certainly not require candidates to prove their ideology or “political loyalty.” After this “recruitment notice” was posted, negative comments flooded, with U.S. netizens commenting: “Is this post saying ‘non-Trump supporters are not allowed to apply?’”
In the eyes of the U.S. media, this incident reflected from the side the manpower shortage in federal judicial positions. U.S. Human Resources Administration data showed that between November 2024 and November 2025, the Justice Department reduced its staff by 8%, while the size of federal prosecutor‘s offices across the country sharply decreased by 14%, from 11,863 to 10,154. Even worse, the ones who left were mostly senior prosecutors dealing with large and important cases, who could easily find high-paying jobs in companies, a veritable “government talent outflow.”
The New York Times reported that since Trump’s return to the White House, a number of prominent U.S. federal prosecutors have left the United States. Shortly after Trump took office, he launched political retaliation against New York Attorney General James and former FBI director Comey. In the process, former Virginia East District federal prosecutor Siebert resigned after being ostracized, taking his entire team with him. Another senior prosecutor, McBride, eventually left his post because of the Comey case. Last April, Trump’s political ally Bill Essaly joined the Central District federal prosecutor’s office in California, and since then, the agency has continued to lose people. Traditionally, departing legal workers receive a memorial medal presented by the Justice Department and signed by colleagues, and in recent months the office has “filled a table with commemorative medals.” After two shootings in Minneapolis, the Justice Department decided not to investigate federal law enforcement officers, which led to more than a dozen prosecutors resigning angrily. In desperation, the local federal prosecutor‘s office had to temporarily borrow legal personnel from the military and Homeland Security Department to assist with daily work, and one borrower recently complained to a judge in court under pressure that “this job sucks.”
In the view of many U.S. officials, the Justice Department was originally a government department that gathered top legal talent, but the White House injected too many “political goals” into the institution, causing it to be losing its attractiveness to talent. The New York Times revealed that in fact many of Trump‘s confidants and allies are also releasing recruitment information through “non-conventional channels” like Mizelle, but even so the number of applicants is still far lower than in previous years, and the overall resume situation is also much worse than before. Not only that, but the federal government is also “smuggling” in its recruitment questionnaires, asking a series of questions with obvious political leanings, such as “How should you assist the president in his policies?” A former prosecutor who recently assisted in interviews in Los Angeles revealed that those candidates who expressed support for Trump‘s policies were indeed more likely to be recruited, even if their academic level and litigation experience were both lacking.