“The department is facing an existential crisis,” says Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, in the video. “The current administration is attempting to transform DOJ into a weapon for the president to enrich himself and punish his enemies. To do it, they are decimating the department’s apolitical career workforce.”

Jack Smith added that “as apolitical civil servants,” Justice Department career employees swore an oath to the Constitution – “not to any one president or political party.”

Since January, more than 5,000 career employees have been terminated, forced to resign, or strongly encouraged to leave through the Deferred Resignation Program. These were public servants whose core mission – through every administration – was to protect the safety, rights, and prosperity of all Americans.

The video highlights the attacks on the department and the ways Justice Connection is helping career employees across the department who are suffering at the hands of this administration.

“They supported my team when they were unjustly fired,” Smith says in the video, speaking of more than 30 prosecutors, FBI agents, and other officials terminated for working with the Special Counsel’s Office.

The video also features other former employees who have received legal, mental health, employment, or media support from Justice Connection since its founding eight months ago.

The video ends with a call to make protecting DOJ’s mission-critical work a top priority. 

“The oath doesn’t end when the job does,” a chorus of voices cry out. “We will never stop fighting for those who serve our country. And we will never stop fighting for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy. Join us.”

“Nobody understands what’s happening to the Justice Department better than people who’ve worked there,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “In this moment, it’s more important than ever that those who have served can share their expertise and insight without fear or filter.”

The law can’t be fairly enforced without a functional Justice Department, which makes protecting the institution and the professionals still there imperative. One way to do that is to make sure the public understands what’s happening and why it matters. 

Through the Justice Connection Substack, DOJ alumni experts will cut through the partisan noise and take readers inside the department to explain what’s happening, how it affects the rule of law, and what it means for the safety, prosperity and rights of every American.

The Substack will go deeper into what the Justice Department does, how the administration is attacking longstanding institutional norms, and why we’ll all suffer if the department is destroyed.

The new platform will also introduce reporters and opinion leaders to experts throughout the department who are available to share their institutional knowledge on the topic raised in their Substack post or related stories in the future.

Justice Connection today released a letter signed by almost 300 recent career Justice Department employees urgently calling on all Americans to fight for the department before it’s too late.

The letter comes a day before Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee – her first appearance before Congress since her confirmation – and days after the end of the Deferred Resignation Program, when approximately 4,500 employees were officially separated from the department. 

Many of them are now willing to publicly sound the alarm about the administration’s degradation of the Justice Department’s vital work and its assault on the public servants who do it.

Each signature is from a career employee who left the department since January – either voluntarily or involuntarily – because of actions taken by this administration. They include prosecutors, special agents, intelligence analysts, immigration judges, grant managers, and more. Each faithfully carried out their duties, regardless of who occupied the White House – until they no longer could.

“The backbone of the Justice Department is the career workforce, and this administration has been driving employees out in droves,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “For decades, the guiding tenet for those working at the department was to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Many believe that’s no longer possible. They’re being asked to put loyalty to the President over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations. We’re seeing the erosion of the Justice Department’s fabric and integrity at an alarming pace. Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law.”

The exodus of career employees continues, and as they have seen their work on behalf of the American people cut short by the current administration’s actions, they have shared their concerns and pride in the Justice Department they knew through departing messages sent to their colleagues and shared online. 

Justice Connection has compiled some of those departing words in one place to be memorialized on its website. 

In today’s letter, the former employees call on the DOJ’s current leaders to reverse course, on fellow alumni to sound the alarm and support their colleagues still at the department, and on Congress to exercise its oversight responsibility more vigorously.

Finally, they call on all Americans – whose safety, prosperity, and rights depend on a strong Justice Department – to speak out against its destruction.

Justice Connection is a network of Justice Department alumni mobilizing to support DOJ’s apolitical workforce and the democratic norms that protect us all. You can follow us on Bluesky, X, and LinkedIn.

“We need an FBI Director who has the experience to lead the FBI and the trust of his workforce, and Kash Patel has proven he has neither. Senators from both sides of the aisle should make that clear in their questioning at tomorrow’s Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.

Good leaders surround themselves with the best people, those with unquestionable expertise who can provide a steady hand and reliable counsel during a crisis. Director Patel has decimated the top leadership at the FBI, pushing out the very people he desperately needed to save himself from embarrassment last week. Embarrassing for him, but also for all the employees who have to submit to his leadership.

Every one of those he removed from the agency – from the former acting director to his former pilot – knows not to carelessly announce the capture of a subject via social media. They know how crucial it is to speak with one voice, how quickly information changes in a high-profile investigation, and how trust is lost when you mislead the public.

Instead of sporting an FBI badge he did not earn, creating a new “Ka$h” challenge coin, and spending his time curating his prolific social media presence, Director Patel should have been listening and learning from the vast experience of the FBI’s most seasoned agents. But he can’t because he has cast out the very leaders he needs to be successful, creating a new leadership structure that punishes those willing to speak truth to power.

By refusing to push back on the White House’s directive to purge FBI agents, Director Patel has made Americans less safe, and our justice system less just. He allegedly acknowledged that his own job was on the line if he didn’t acquiesce to the President’s demands, even though he admits the firings are illegal and in direct violation of FBI’s protocols to prevent retaliation based on case assignments.

Last week should be a wake-up call.

The nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency deserves preeminent leadership ready to handle every crisis. It deserves much better than Kash Patel.”

“We hear from employees who are afraid – afraid of being fired, afraid of where to draw the line, afraid of going to anyone within the department for help,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “They’re feeling powerless, and they need a safe place to talk through their concerns with a trusted professional. The mental health network is that place.”

Administration officials promised to put federal employees in trauma, and, unfortunately, they are succeeding. Justice Connection recruited several Justice Department alumni who led large-scale programs addressing mental health, victimization, and trauma at the department to coordinate resources and recruit providers.

Among them was Dr. Alix McLearen, a licensed clinical psychologist and retired federal law enforcement officer whose portfolio included oversight of mental health services in all 122 federal prisons.

“DOJ employees are facing trauma every day,” Dr. McLearen says in the video. “Whether that’s from political attacks, job instability, public hostility. These firings have been random. They have been wholly unrelated to job performance. And so you are seeing people not know what’s coming, learn to be extremely helpless, and wonder when the other shoe is going to drop.”

The providers participating in the mental health network are eager to work with federal employees, and many provide free sessions, reduced fees, or immediate scheduling options. Several have experience treating employees from segments of the department’s workforce, including law-enforcement agencies.

Current or recent Justice Department employees can connect with these providers by emailing Justice Connection at help@thejusticeconnection.org from a non-government email address. They will be provided with a list of providers within the network, which has clinicians licensed to practice in the metropolitan D.C. region as well as many states outside the region. If an employee lives in an area that is not covered by a clinician within the network, Justice Connection will work with them to find a mental health professional who can help them.

The law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and staff who comprise the apolitical career staff at the Justice Department serve at the front lines ensuring the safety and security of our communities. They can’t do their job effectively if they are being made to endure trauma at the hands of their own department leadership. When we protect DOJ employees, we protect our country.

“It’s dangerous and stupid to be doing this to people at DOJ who provide such important services protecting our country,” Dr. McLearen says in the video. “If you are a DOJ employee who is experiencing distress, we are here for you.”

Justice Connection quickly emerged as the leading voice speaking out against the nomination. We sounded the alarm about Bove’s manifest unfitness for the federal bench through media interviews, press releases, in-house produced videos, social media posts that garnered millions of views, and a letter signed by almost 1,000 former DOJ attorneys. We also lobbied Congress, including by coordinating groups of recent DOJ officials with pertinent information who met with Senate staff. And we encouraged, and actively supported, the brave whistleblowers who went public with their accounts of Bove’s actions that undermine the rule of law.

The Senate narrowly confirmed Bove. But as the following chronology of our advocacy shows, we made it as hard for them as we could by spotlighting the plain truth: elevating someone who’s degraded the institution that enforces the law to the institution that interprets it is an assault on our democratic system.

June 23, Justice Connection Press Release: Justice Connection releases video of former DOJ officials opposing Bove nomination

June 24: MSNBC airs Justice Connection video on Emil Bove

June 24, Justice Connection Press Release: Erez Reuveni whistleblower complaint proves Emil Bove unfit to serve as federal judge

June 24, CNN: Top Justice Department leaders and judicial nominee tried to mislead judges, whistleblower says

“It’s unconscionable to even consider elevating someone to the judiciary who told DOJ lawyers that saying ‘F-you’ to courts was on the table,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “Emil Bove is a principal architect of this administration’s project to bulldoze over the separation of powers and the rule of law. It should go without saying that anyone who believes court orders can be defied belongs nowhere near the federal bench.” 

June 25, Justice Connection Press Release: Justice Connection releases video featuring Erez Reuveni’s former colleagues

June 25, New York Times: Bove denies suggesting Justice Dept. ignore court orders 

Stacey Young of Justice Connection, a group that advocates for former department employees, including some of those Mr. Bove has dismissed, said confirming him only carried risks. His testimony “proved again today why he is such a dangerous nominee,” she said. “It’s possible to be smart, experienced and morally bankrupt. If you are No. 3, No. 1 and No. 2 can’t save you.”

June 25, CNN: Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove denies allegations in whistleblower report and says he’s not a ‘henchman’

Justice Connection, a coalition of former Justice Department officials, released a video on Monday with statements from formal federal prosecutors warning the public of Bove’s alleged unlawful practices.

July 10, The New Yorker: Why a devoted Justice Department lawyer became a whistleblower

Stacey Young, who resigned from the D.O.J. in January and founded Justice Connection, a group that supports Department employees, estimates that about two hundred people have been dismissed. According to Young, dozens more have been transferred to lesser positions; thousands have resigned.

July 16, Justice Connection Press Release: 900+ former DOJ attorneys express alarm over Emil Bove’s nomination 

Justice Connection sends a letter to the members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Media coverage of the DOJ alumni letter:

• July 16, New York Times: 900 Ex-Justice Dept. lawyers urge Senate not to confirm Bove as federal appeals judge
• July 16, Reuters: Hundreds of DOJ alumni warn Senate against Trump’s appellate judge nominee
• July 16, The Hill: 900 DOJ attorneys urge Senate to reject Bove nomination
• July 16, Huffington Post: More than 900 former DOJ attorneys condemn Trump court Emil Bove
• July 16, Above the Law: Over 90 former DOJ lawyers sign letter opposing Emil Bove nomination . . . Oh, wait, sorry, that’s *900*
• July 17, The Washington Post: As Democrats walk out, Republicans advance judicial nomination of Emil Bove
• July 17, MSNBC Opinion: Why hundreds of lawyers are banding together against Emil Bove’s judicial nomination
• July 17, ABC News: Committee advances former Trump attorney for key appeals court role

The Justice Department responds to the DOJ alumni letter:

• July 16, X: The Deputy Attorney General’s Chief of Staff, Brian Nieves, attacks Justice Connection

Senators respond to the DOJ alumni letter:

• July 24: Senators Mazie Hirono and Andy Kim read from Justice Connection’s letter on the Senate floor

July 17, NPR: Senate panel approves federal judge nomination for Emil Bove, who defended Trump

“The rule of law is really only as strong as the institutions that enforce it and then interpret it – chief among them DOJ and the judiciary,” said Stacey Young, who leads Justice Connection, a group that helps Justice Department lawyers find ethics and legal advice. “And it would be disgraceful to elevate someone who’s degraded one of those institutions to a lifetime seat on the other.”

July 23, The NPR Politics Podcast: What Bove’s nomination says about Trump’s future judge picks

“The Senate has a duty to thoroughly examine nominations to all judicial appointments. And by voting to confirm Emil Bove to a lifetime appointment, they would be doing more than placing someone problematic on the bench; they would be giving their stamp of approval on everything that has happened at DOJ over the last six months. And that is simply unacceptable,” said Stacey Young.

July 25, Justice Connection press release breaks new information: Justice Connection urges Republican senators to meet new whistleblower before Bove final vote

July 29, New York Times: Grassley, a champion of whistleblowers, spurns them in a fight over Bove

Stacey Young of Justice Connection, which advocates on behalf of current and former Justice Department employees, said the group had repeatedly talked to agency employees “who are too scared of retribution to internally report the fraud and abuse they’ve witnessed.”

Increasingly, she said, those employees no longer see Congress as a viable option, faced with the prospect of being discounted or criticized. Mr. Grassley and other lawmakers, she said, have only “contributed to the culture of fear that’s hindering meaningful transparency and accountability.”

July 29: Sen. Chuck Grassley singles out Justice Connection for criticizing his refusal to meet with whistleblowers

July 30, Justice Connection Press Release: Statement on Emil Bove’s confirmation to Third Circuit

August 2, The Atlantic: Republicans Might Regret Putting Emil Bove on the Bench (by DOJ alum Brendan Ballou, describing Justice Connection’s lobbying campaign)

A few weeks ago, a group of former Justice Department lawyers, including me, asked to meet with Republican senators to discuss the Bove nomination. We all had worked on prosecutions related to January 6; several members of the group were among the roughly two dozen lawyers whom Bove had fired for precisely that reason.

On August 28, DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers the nation’s immigration courts, eliminated virtually all qualification requirements for temporary immigration judge positions, and the Department of Defense announced that same week it would provide 600 military attorneys, without any prior immigration law experience or required minimum years of experience, to serve six-month terms as temporary judges.

Previously, temporary judge positions were restricted to highly qualified individuals who would be able to readily adapt to the high demands of the position: former appellate and trial-level immigration judges, administrative law judges from other federal agencies, or attorneys with at least 10 years of immigration law experience.

“Where the position once required seasoned attorneys with deep immigration expertise, it can now be filled by any licensed attorney in any field, regardless of courtroom or subject-matter experience,” said Ashley Tabaddor, former immigration judge and president emeritus of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

The push to fill the immigration courts with temporary judges comes from a crisis of the administration’s own making: At a time when those courts are experiencing an overwhelming backlog of cases, the administration has terminated dozens of the judges who preside over  them. Those fired seem to have been targeted because of apparent politically motivated bases, rather than any actual legitimate performance issues. This has created a culture of fear that eviscerates judicial independence.

“Firing expert, high-performing, effective judges and replacing them with inexperienced temps does not make the courts more efficient or achieve any goals of systemic reform. It is simply destructive,” said Kyra Lilien, a former immigration judge who was terminated without stated cause in July 2025.

Why Lowering the Standards for Immigration Judges Matters

Immigration judges handle cases of extraordinary consequence involving asylum seekers and long-time legal residents, and requiring complex legal determinations that can permanently separate families or determine life-or-death outcomes.

These positions require deep knowledge of immigration law, which is widely recognized as one of the most complex areas of federal law, and also intersects with state criminal and family law. Immigration judges must also possess a mastery of sophisticated judicial skills including courtroom management, credibility assessment, and the ability to issue oral decisions that will withstand appellate review. They handle dockets of up to 7,000 cases and are expected to render oral decisions immediately at the end of hours-long merits hearings.

The technical demands alone are substantial. Immigration judges must simultaneously operate complex courtroom technology, manage digital audio recording systems, and navigate dual case management platforms, all while conducting bench trials and performing complex legal analysis in real time. The vast majority of cases they hear use foreign language interpreters, and respondents are often unrepresented by legal counsel. Immigration judges also lack the support of sufficient judicial law clerks to research intricate legal issues and draft lengthy or complex decisions.

The Experience Paradox

The vast majority of judges come to the job with significant immigration experience.

“The complexity of immigration law cannot be overstated – rapid changes in legal interpretations and enforcement priorities challenge even our most experienced judges,” said Ryan Wood, founding partner of Emeriti Law and former supervisory immigration judge. “The existing process trains experienced litigators to become effective immigration judges, but only through rigorous vetting: six weeks of initial training, a full year of mentorship, two-year review processes, and ongoing education. Of course, even with this yearslong assistance, some candidates don’t succeed. The suggestion that military attorneys on six-month terms can be effective immigration judges isn’t fair to anyone involved.”

Even individuals with significant experience in immigration law, case adjudication, or courtroom management require a significant period of time to adjust to the immigration bench through proper training and sustained mentoring by experienced judges. Under the new regulations, temporary appointees selected by the Department of Defense will lack adequate background or time for full training before they receive enormous dockets.

Broader Implications

The administration’s recent actions are putting speed and convenience ahead of meritocracy and fairness. They strip people of their basic constitutional rights and go against the purpose of the laws Congress passed to protect refugees and other immigrants.

“The concept behind the legal network is simple,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “DOJ employees are facing terminations, ethical quandaries, and criminal and congressional investigations – simply for doing their jobs. Even when employees are able to find a qualified attorney, hiring one can be cost-prohibitive, especially for those who’ve lost their salary. Fortunately, there are a lot of former DOJ attorneys who want to help our former colleagues who are under assault. We’re connecting them.”

Dozens of DOJ employees have already been paired with volunteer alumni attorneys from the Justice Connection Legal Network for pro bono representation in MSPB, EEO, whistleblower, criminal and congressional matters.

The greatest need for representation is for employees seeking to appeal their terminations with the MSBP. Justice Connection provides interested alumni who want to help with training, and it has partnered with two federal sector legal specialists at the DC Law Collective – Pam Hicks, who was fired in February as ATF’s General Counsel, and Greg Pinto – who volunteer their time to help attorneys in the Justice Connection Legal Network with MSPB-related questions as they arise.

Justice Connection released a video today featuring Hicks and Pinto discussing this partnership.

“We’re totally committed to helping Justice Connection in any way that we can,” Pinto says in the video. Referencing department leadership, Pinto continues, “They are firing people en masse, and they know that it may be difficult for you to find an attorney. That doesn’t mean you should give up your rights. They want you to go away. And you shouldn’t.”

In addition, Justice Connection recently purchased an umbrella malpractice insurance plan, allowing volunteer attorneys to participate without needing to secure their own insurance.

“We have a large pool of volunteer attorneys already but with a dramatic increase in terminations throughout the department, we may soon need more volunteers,” Young said. “We don’t want to see any targeted employees left to fend for themselves.”

Current or recent DOJ employees seeking legal support related to actions taken by the current administration can access the network by email at intake@thejusticeconnection.org. After an intake interview to confirm eligibility, they are connected with one of Justice Connection’s attorney volunteers.

Any DOJ alumni interested in joining the Legal Network as an attorney volunteer should reach out through alumni@thejusticeconnection.org. Note that to serve as an attorney volunteer, alumni must be a member of any state bar.

The video features Pam Hicks, who served as ATF’s chief counsel until she was terminated by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February 2025 after working for the department for 23 years.

“I don’t know how you can say you are an administration that is focused on cartels and violent crime and cut the workforce that gives you so many leads on trafficking to the cartels,” Hicks says in the video. “It is not consistent with the administration’s stated priorities.”

The Justice Department’s 2026 budget proposal seeks to eliminate ATF as a stand-alone law enforcement agency by incorporating it into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The proposal would reduce its budget by more than $400 million – a 25% decrease from its current operating budget. The cut would eliminate all 541 industry operations investigators, drastically reducing federal oversight of the firearms and explosives industries. Overall staffing would drop from approximately 5,300 to 3,600 people.

“The administration’s proposed budget, it just eviscerates an already too small agency,” Hicks explains in the video. “This is not a bad budget. This is a disastrous budget.”

ATF is the only federal agency tasked with protecting Americans from gun crimes. ATF’s core functions include:

• Solving gun crimes. When there’s a shooting or murder, ATF agents trace the weapon. ATF identified the alleged Trump assassination attempt shooter in under 30 minutes using this expertise.

• Stopping bombing attacks. When a bomb explodes, ATF experts figure out who built it and how. They operate the nation’s only federal laboratory that can recreate bombing conditions to solve cases and catch bombers – expertise that local police simply don’t have.

• Breaking up criminal networks: ATF goes after illegal gun trafficking and violent career criminals.

• Partnering with local police: Community departments rely on ATF’s specialized databases, ballistic evidence analysis, and explosives expertise for cases they can’t handle alone.

“All it’s going to take, sadly, is what it always takes in this area, which is a huge tragedy,” Hicks says. “After they’ve given their ‘thoughts and prayers’ tweet, some people start asking do we have to live this way? Do we have to have bombings? Do we have to have mass shootings? That’s usually how mistakes in this area get corrected, and it’s tragic that that’s what it takes.”

This video is part of an ongoing video project to raise awareness about the vital work carried out by the nonpartisan workforce at the Justice Department and the consequences of this administration’s attacks against the department.

We have expanded our social media presence to Bluesky & X to ensure that Americans understand the grave harm caused by attacks on the Department and its workforce. You can follow us at @justiceconnection.bsky.social and @Justice_CXN.

“The fact that an FBI Director would even have an enemies list, the fact that friendships could be used against career employees, it’s difficult to state how abnormal this is,” Feinberg says in the video. “Kash Patel was explicitly hired to enact a political purge at the FBI.”

Feinberg recently published a story on Lawfare detailing the circumstances that led to his abrupt resignation on June 1, 2025.

Throughout his career at the FBI, Feinberg – who speaks Mandarin Chinese – focused on counterintelligence and counterterrorism, leading some of the greatest successes of the first Trump Administration’s efforts against the People’s Republic of China’s intelligence services and their proxies. Before his resignation, he was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Norfolk Field Office’s national security and intelligence programs.

Feinberg is just one of the many senior FBI managers who have been driven out of the bureau for purely political reasons.

“I have literally dedicated my entire adult life to combatting the intelligence services of our greatest geostrategic rival,” Feinberg says in the video. “We have lost individuals who are legends in the tactical and hostage rescue world. We have lost experts in foreign terrorist organizations.”

The effect of this purge at the FBI is profound, and it has caused the loss of expertise in a wide range of strategic national security priorities, such as counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber security. In addition, FBI leadership has pushed many agents doing this work to instead support immigration enforcement operations, pulling agents with special language capabilities and expertise handling sensitive and complex security matters to stand on the perimeter while ICE agents execute immigration arrests.

“The American people, no matter in what part of the country you live or how you cast your ballot, need to understand that what is happening at the FBI is not normal and it is not making us safer,” Feinberg concludes. “And get angry, because ultimately it’s your communities that are going to be victimized.”

This video is part of an ongoing video project to raise awareness about the vital work carried out by the nonpartisan workforce at the Justice Department and the consequences of this administration’s attacks against the department.