An Insider Continuing to Fight for Justice - On the Outside

I first joined the Justice Department in 2007 as a political appointee for President George W. Bush.

This was going to be a short stay. I had spent over five years as a press secretary for Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, and a mentor recommended that I get a job working on the House side and also for the executive branch. If you check those three boxes, you can do any job in Washington, I was told.

But within that first year, I knew this was a place I wanted to stay.

While I enjoyed working on Capitol Hill, I wasn’t a partisan person. I cared about good policy and serving the people of Utah. I had to engage in political battles, but that isn’t what drove my work.

At the Justice Department, even as a political appointee, everything was different.

We didn’t talk about partisan advantage, or how a case would affect the President or the party. Instead, the focus was on the law, the case, and communicating how what we did helped keep the country safe.

That’s not to say that what we did was uncontroversial. The Justice Department was at the heart of many of the nation’s most critical policies, from our conduct in the war on terror to the proper use of the vast surveillance powers of our intelligence agencies. But what I saw behind the scenes were people who cared deeply about doing the right thing in the right way in an unprecedented time.

And underneath all of the hotly contested issues was the daily work of the attorneys in the department, investigating and bringing cases that made a difference in the lives of communities throughout the nation.

So I chose to stay at the Justice Department. I applied for a position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and converted from a political appointee to a career civil servant.

That transition was not hard because in the Justice Department, there was little difference in the way a political appointee operated compared to a career employee. The moral compass remained the same, and our eyes were always on the institution and our role in promoting a fair and equal justice system.

What changed was who made the final decision.

As a political appointee, my job was to listen to the wisdom and guidance of my career staff before signing off on a course of action. As a career employee, my job was to provide that wisdom and guidance and then execute on the final decision leadership made.

We were one team, all working toward the same goal and your views on the right course of action carried a lot of weight, regardless of whether you were on the political or career side.

Since those early days, I have held almost every public affairs position possible, from one of 93 Public Information Officers in field offices throughout the country to the acting director of public affairs for the entire department (both under the George W. Bush and first Trump administration). No matter where I served, I found people dedicated to the same mission. I didn’t know if I was working with a Republican or a Democrat because it didn’t matter.

At the Justice Department, politics didn’t play a role in whether to bring a case. The facts, the law, and department policy did. Your experience and expertise were sought out and valued.

Until now.

After nearly two decades working at and caring for the department, I don’t recognize it anymore. I never imagined that the institution I dedicated my entire career building could be destroyed in such a short period of time.

My career at the department came to an abrupt end in April when I was fired with no notice and without cause. Unfortunately, I’m only one of hundreds who have been unjustly terminated by this administration, and hundreds more have been forced to retire or resign. In all, we estimate that 5,500 employees have left the department.

That exodus of career employees continues, as we have seen more terminations and others leave on their own because they are being asked to put loyalty to the president over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations.

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.

We saw these in real time, and we didn’t want these messages to be lost to history. So we compiled as many as we could find and highlighted some on Justice Connection’s website. You can read them here: https://www.thejusticeconnection.org/farewell-messages/.

These messages reflect the heart and soul of the department that I came to love. Take some time to read them and get to know the kind of people I worked with every day.

I share their pride in their work and the overriding commitment they had to live up to the oath they took to uphold and defend the Constitution.

I also share in their despair. They know that our safety, prosperity, and rights depend on an institution that is under attack.

We once fought for these ideals within the Justice Department. Now, we have realized that for us, the best way we can fight for the department is from the outside.

As Justice Connection says in its recent video, now is the time to speak up for Justice.

We hope these messages will help all Americans to join us - before it’s too late.

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