Raising DOJ Voices Through Justice Connection’s Substack

I published an op-ed in The New York Times a week before the inauguration about what federal employees would need most during the second Trump administration. My focus was on direct support – providing things like legal counsel, mental health assistance, job connections, and whistleblowing guidance to the public servants I knew would be targeted.

Two weeks later, I left DOJ after 18 years and founded Justice Connection to provide DOJ employees with that support.

We’ve seen how vital this help has been. Justice Connection has supported employees across DOJ, including many of the more than 5,000 employees who’ve already been pushed out. But with an eye toward the American public the department protects, we’ve done much more to stand up for DOJ – and we’re about to go further.

Attacks on the Justice Department Threaten American Democracy

Every American’s safety, prosperity, and rights depend on my former colleagues’ ability to enforce the law without fear or favor. That’s becoming harder every day, and for some it’s no longer possible. Employees are being asked to put loyalty to the president over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations.

At a moment of democratic backsliding, preserving institutions at the core of our system of government has never been more important. The fabric and integrity of the Justice Department are eroding at an alarming pace, and we all need to step up before it’s too late.

Justice Connection’s Substack as a Way to Fight Back

Because the law can’t be fairly enforced without a functional Justice Department, the public needs to understand what’s happening, and why it matters. This administration’s firehose of activity at DOJ is meant to make it hard for anyone to keep up – but we refuse to let it.

Since Justice Connection’s launch nine months ago, national news outlets have featured our analysis and our work supporting DOJ employees more than 130 times, and we’ve raised awareness through congressional testimony, ads, videos, and social media. Nobody understands what’s happening to the Justice Department better than people who’ve worked there.

Now, we’re giving DOJ alumni a new way to speak out. We started Justice Connection’s Substack so DOJ experts can take you inside this administration’s attacks on the department.

What to Expect from Our Substack

Our Substack will allow former DOJ employees – from our growing network of thousands of alumni – to go deeper into what DOJ does, how the administration is attacking longstanding institutional norms, and why we’ll all suffer if the department is destroyed.

From former prosecutors to immigration judges, environmental lawyers to intelligence analysts, alumni will explain how their work kept our nation safe, our economy prosperous, and our rights secure.

Through written posts and video commentary, they’ll describe what it means when the administration shutters offices, cancels life-saving grants, fires career officials for doing their jobs, and weaponizes institutional apparatuses to carry out the president’s whims.

We’ll also post rapid-response analysis of DOJ developments by subject-matter experts who understand their contours and consequences:

• When lawyers are ordered to prosecute the president’s enemies regardless of the evidence, former federal prosecutors can discuss the dangers of succumbing to political pressure.

• When the Civil Rights Division refuses to enforce the Voting Rights Act, former division attorneys can explain why this jeopardizes free and fair elections.

• When FBI agents are diverted from counterterrorism to arrest immigrants on the street, former agents can describe how this makes our nation less secure.

• And when members of Congress slander DOJ employees for exposing lawlessness, former DOJ whistleblowers can make clear why shedding light on abuse helps uphold the rule of law.

We’ll also use the platform to spotlight Justice Connection’s advocacy efforts. We’re starting by sharing a letter signed by almost 300 of us who left since January, either voluntarily or involuntarily, because of actions taken by this administration.

We used the letter to decry attacks on the institution and its workforce, and explain why DOJ has abandoned its mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect our civil rights. For most signatories, this was their first time speaking out publicly since leaving the department – and many are eager to use Substack to keep going.

To counter the degradation and weaponization of DOJ, citizens must know what’s at stake, Congress must feel the pain of inaction, and the administration must understand the public pushback.

Amplifying DOJ voices will help make that happen. I hope you’ll subscribe and share our Substack with your networks.

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