The Guardian - More than 250 attorneys in the justice department’s civil rights division have either left, been reassigned, or accepted a deferred resignation offer since January, according to an estimate provided to the Guardian by people familiar with the matter. The significant decrease in personnel underscores how Donald Trump is gutting the arm of the federal government responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
About 235 attorneys in the division’s civil enforcement sections have accepted deferred resignations or have quit the justice department and roughly another 20 have been reassigned or detailed to do other work within the agency, including handling public records requests and internal agency complaints.
The sections that handle civil enforcement work in the division, the core of the its work, had around 365 attorneys in January, according to a rough estimate provided to the Guardian. About 105 remain after a 28 April deadline to accept a deferred resignation offer.
The roughly 70% reduction in attorneys comes as the Trump administration has sought to transform the civil rights division, created in 1957 to enforce US federal civil rights laws. Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump ally who took over the division in April, has made it clear that the focus of the division will be enforcing Trump’s priorities, including hunting for voter fraud (which is exceedingly rare), preventing discrimination against white people in college admissions, and limiting the rights of transgender people.
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