WASHINGTON ― Congressional Democrats are demanding answers from the Justice Department about firings and reassignments that have taken place since Donald Trump was sworn in as president last week.
While it’s normal for presidential appointees to resign and be replaced when a new president takes power, the Justice Department has reportedly fired or reassigned several career officials serving in non-political roles.
“This onslaught against effective DOJ civil servants began within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in complete contradiction of the president’s repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment,” Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrats on the House judiciary and oversight committees, said in a letter to Acting Attorney General James McHenry.
Trump’s personnel purge did not come as a huge surprise, since the president for years has railed against the Justice Department and its supposed “witch hunt” investigations into his own alleged criminal behavior. He has also complained about supposed “deep state” actors undermining his agenda from within the federal government.
Russ Vought, Trump’s nominee to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, has argued the president should be allowed to have a federal workforce that is personally loyal to him.
“It is to ensure that the president, who has policy-setting responsibility, has individuals who are also confidential, policy-making positions are responding to his views, his agenda,” Vought said at a confirmation hearing earlier this month.
Raskin and Connolly demanded a list of the officials fired or reassigned to less important roles, as well as reasons for the moves. They likened Trump’s push for a loyal workforce to the infamous “spoils system” of the 1800s.
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“This political patronage system led to a federal workforce that was largely unqualified and prioritized obsequious scraping and bowing, electoral campaigning, and raising money for the President over their official duties,” Raskin and Connolly wrote.