Justice Department Lawyers Flee in Droves Rather Than Defend Trump

There’s been a mass exodus at the DOJ’s Federal Programs Branch—a unit specifically tasked with defending Trump’s most aggressive policies in court.

Of the 110 lawyers at the Federal Programs Branch, 69 have either already quit or announced that they’re quitting since Trump won in November, according to Reuters. Many of them left because they felt overwhelmed by the workload (they’re fighting an “unprecedented number of lawsuits,” one DOJ spokesperson said). Others felt ideologically compromised by the positions the administration was forcing them to defend, like the end of birthright citizenship, massive DOGE cuts from Elon Musk, or the countless extrajudicial deportations carried out by ICE.

“Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system,” one of the outgoing lawyers told Reuters. “How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?”

The Federal Programs Branch plays a crucial role in pushing Trump’s agenda forward, and the Justice Department is working actively to refill the positions with individuals more inclined to mindlessly carry out the president’s will, no matter how blatantly unconstitutional.

Early signs bode ill for Trump after his base soundly rejected his attempt to smooth over the Epstein affair this weekend.

Trump in recent days has faced a revolt from his base over his Justice Department’s July 7 memo that Jeffrey Epstein had not kept a “client list” and that there had been no foul play in the disgraced financier and sex trafficker’s death. Top officials in the Trump administration had previously elevated Epstein-related conspiracy theories, promising full transparency on the matter and to release the supposed client list.

Trump on Saturday took to Truth Social to dispel MAGA outrage—which includes calls to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi—by insisting that the Epstein files are “Radical Left inspired Documents” created by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden, and that the administration ought “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

The president’s message evidently fell flat among large swaths of his supporters. Major MAGA media figures have registered their dissatisfaction with the statement, and the Truth Social post was Trump’s first ever post on his platform to receive more replies than likes—indicating that users gave Trump an earful over it.

A Morning Consult poll conducted from July 4 to July 10—a period during which the Epstein news broke and began to resonate (not to mention other developments, such as the passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill)—seems to indicate a backlash against Trump. The polling firm, which collects data on global leaders’ approval ratings, has Trump at 44 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval between July 4 and July 10. This represents a six-point dip from a month earlier.

This reversal, of course, can only tell us so much, as the poll records favorability and unfavorability generally, rather than issue-specific data. But since it was conducted, Trump further stirred the pot with his Saturday plea on Truth Social. While we’ll have to wait for clearer quantifications of the backlash against Trump for the Epstein fiasco, MAGA rancor over the matter seems more clamorous than ever, with no sign of quieting down any time soon.

President Donald Trump forced his way onto Chelsea’s Club World Cup victory celebration on Sunday, much to the chagrin and confusion of everyone involved. He was booed mercilessly. 

Trump, as the host country representative, was only meant to hand the English club their trophy and exit stage left after their 3-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain. Instead he lingered on stage, completely ignoring FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s obvious attempts to get him to leave the platform, situating himself right in front of Cole Palmer, who was named player of the tournament for scoring two of England’s three goals. 

Palmer looked particularly confused in the moment, and later confirmed that to reporters. 

“Naw, I knew he was going to be there, but I didn’t know he was gonna be on the stand where we lift the trophy,” Palmer said. “So I was a bit confused, yeah.” 

Chelsea Captain Reece James echoed his teammate’s sentiments. 

“It probably highlights how big the tournament is, the coverage for the tournament final was huge,” James said in response to a question about Trump’s presence. “And yet, answering your question: Before they told me that he was gonna present the trophy and then exit the stage … I thought that he was gonna exit the stage but he wanted to stay.” 

Aside from being another excellent example of the president’s general hubris, Trump crashing Chelsea’s victory celebration also showed his impressive lack of situational awareness. Boos rained down on him throughout the event, and although he was undeterred, the tension highlights both Trump’s unpopularity and the controversy surrounding the U.S hosting of the Club Cup and the 2026 World Cup amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and outright hostility to allies.  

Earlier this week—in a story that reads as a perfect encapsulation of abuses by Trump’s immigration enforcement—masked ICE agents roughed up and detained a 71-year-old U.S. citizen volunteering as a legal observer to monitor them at a federal courthouse in San Diego.

Grandmother Barbara Stone says she was documenting the detention of asylum-seekers with the group “Detention Resistance” at San Diego’s immigration court when she was baselessly accused of pushing an officer. Multiple masked agents then pursued Stone, grabbed and handcuffed her (leaving bruises), confiscated her phone and purse, and detained her for over eight hours, she says.

Once Stone was released, ICE returned her bag but kept possession of her phone. Why? Stone says an ICE agent compared the situation to “a drug bust where they keep a drug dealer’s phone because I had used it in the crime.”

But the only “crime” of which Stone says she’s guilty is documenting immigration enforcement. If this is true, the episode would track with other apparent attempts by ICE agents to avoid accountability of late, for instance, by wearing masks so they can conduct raids and arrests anonymously.

In a statement to a local outlet, ICE accused Stone of assaulting an officer, citing “a 700% increase in assaults” against its agents over the last year (a statistic the agency uses to justify agents concealing their identities, as well).

That 700 percent increase, it should be noted, is a somewhat misleading way to say there have been 79 alleged assaults against ICE agents this year, compared to 10 in the same timeframe last year. Meanwhile, ICE interactions have become dramatically more frequent and aggressive.

ICE’s numbers unfortunately deserve further scrutiny, as the agency has been defining “assault” quite loosely. In another high-profile arrest of a U.S. citizen, for example, ICE last month detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander for assault—an accusation not unlike when a schoolyard bully accuses his victim of getting in the way of his fist, as Washington Post columnist Philip Bump put it.

One might add, to this list of questionable ICE allegations, its new claims about Stone.

Anti-woke podcaster Andrew Schultz is coming to the same realization as thousands of other American voters over the last six months: President Trump lied to them.

“Everything [Trump] campaigned on I believe he wanted to do. And now he’s doing the exact opposite thing of every single fuckin’ thing,” Schultz said on his “Flagarant” podcast Thursday. “There’ll be people that like, they’ll DM me and be like, ‘You see what your boy’s doing? You voted for this.’ I’m like, I voted for none of this!”

Schultz has been an ardent supporter of Trump for some time now, even having him on his podcast as a guest during his presidential campaign. He continued on.

“He’s doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. I want him to stop the wars; he’s funding them. I want him to shrink spending, reduce the budget. He’s increasing it. It’s like everything that he’s said he’s gonna do, except sending immigrants back—and now he’s even flip-flopped on that … ‘Maybe he will stop these wars.’ No. ‘Maybe we will see what’s up with this Epstein shit.’ No.”

Strangely, Schultz isn’t the only one surprised by the gap between Trump’s campaign promises and his actions as president. Fellow Trump supporters like Elon Musk are baffled by Trump’s wanton spending on the budget bill, while Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is dismayed at Trump continuing the endless wars. And MAGA members far and wide are shocked and upset over the administration’s effective dropping of the Epstein case. It seems like a shift is coming, but it may be all too late.

The Trump administration’s complete dismissal of the Jeffrey Epstein case continues to backfire as some of the most intense, involved members of his voting base think they’ve lost him to the “deep state.” 

As the Student Action Summit conference hosted by Charlie Kirk’s right-wing Turning Point USA group kicked off on Friday, multiple MAGA loyalists expressed anger and exasperation with President Trump’s handling of the case that has dominated much of the conspiratorial far-right.   

“It’s not about just a pedophile ring and all that. It’s about who governs us, right? And that’s why [the Epstein case] is not gonna go away,” MAGA godfather Steve Bannon yelled from the conference stage. He then went on to detail just how important the case is to the deep base. “For this to go away, you’re gonna lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we’re gonna lose 40 seats in [20]26, we’re gonna lose the presidency, they won’t even have to steal it … because [the Trump administration] will have disheartened the hardest core populist …”

Trump supporters who felt that the president was the answer to years of liberal and neoconservative deep state corruption are now reeling, feeling lost and confused as their knight in shining armor turns his back on one of their most important issues. 

Bannon turned to three young conference attendees and asked them for their take on the situation. 

“We need to, we need to enforce the laws of this country and you know, like you said, Steve, there’s no better question than who rules America. It’s not the people. So we need to obviously have the declassification of the Epstein files,” one said before Bannon chimed in. 

“You don’t think Donald Trump as president — you would tell Donald Trump in the Oval Office that you think there’s an open question, with him as commander-in-chief and doing all he’s doing, you would actually tell Trump you don’t know, you question who rules this country?”

“I definitely would because it’s a blackmail ring and anybody who wouldn’t is not paying attention. Simply put, Epstein himself said that he was best friends, on the stand, with Donald Trump. So anybody who thought that these files were going to get just declassified because we pressured him enough or you voted harder enough is just lying to yourself frankly.” 

The young man continued on. 

“In 2016, we trusted the plan with Trump, but now Trump has become the deep state. The exact thing he we voted him in—” 

‘Why do you say he’s become the deep state?” Bannon asked.

“What is more deep state than covering up for pedophiles? Why would you go to that island? Why? Tell me why would you go to that island? Why would you go on the plane? … Why his top donors—why are his top donors neighbors with Epstein?”

It seems that Trump’s most ardent supporters are finally asking the important questions. And while some in the MAGAsphere zero in on Attorney General Pam Bondi, others grasp that the one person with the most power over the case, the one person who could even come close to validating any of their theories, is Trump. And he has expressed no interest whatsoever in doing that. In fact, he can’t even believe that his base is still talking about it. And as we approach one full week of uproar, it’s clear that the Epstein thing won’t be going away anytime soon. 

“The only way this Epstein firestorm passes is if the 5 to 10 to maybe 15 percent of the Trump movement, the Pepes and the hardcores, many of whom are in this audience, just say, ‘I’ve had enough of it,’” Bannon later proclaimed. “The Epstein situation gets down to one basic question: Who governs this country? Is it a shadowy network of intelligence, MI6 Saudi intelligence, the Mossad, CIA … or do the people of the United States govern?” 

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino may be planning to resign amid major MAGA backlash over the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation according to one of Donald Trump’s slimiest allies. 

Laura Loomer, a prominent MAGA influencer in the president’s circle posted on X Friday declaring that Bongino was “seriously thinking about RESIGNING” in response to Attorney  General Pam Bondi’s “mishandling” of the Epstein file release. Axios confirmed that the two had sparred on Wednesday.

“Source tells me it’s very likely that Bongino resigns from the FBI unless Pam Blondi is FIRED by President Trump or resigns from the DOJ,” Loomer wrote. 

Earlier Friday, Loomer said that Bongino had played hooky Friday to consider his options, as a stark schism opened up between Trump and his MAGA acolytes to whom he spoon-fed conspiracies.

It’s important to keep in mind that Loomer has her own agenda when she “reports” on the Trump administration, and is desperate for any job that will keep her in close to the Oval Office. 

After the DOJ’s memo declaring that the alleged sex trafficker kept no “incriminating ‘client list’” was released, Loomer had immediately called for Bondi to be fired. This isn’t the first time that the far-right activist has attempted to get involved with personnel decisions at the White House. In April, a meeting she had with Trump led directly to the dismissal of three Pentagon officials, and has repeatedly attacked administration officials she deems to be disloyal to the president.

Now, Loomer could find herself near the epicenter of yet another major shake up. 

Before Tuesday, a district court had barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees en masse as his executive order calling for “large-scale reductions in force” undergoes legal challenges. Then, the Supreme Court granted Trump’s emergency request to lift the injunction.

In the Trump administration’s first batch of firings since getting the Supreme Court’s green light, Marco Rubio’s State Department axed more than 1,300 employees—1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service personnel—as part of a reduction in force affecting 3,000 employees. (The other 1,600 personnel apparently already made incentivized voluntary departures.)

This is seemingly just the beginning for the State Department, as Rubio aims to shrink the department’s domestic workforce of 18,000 by 18 percent.

The American Foreign Service Association issued a statement skewering the cuts as misguided and ill-timed.

“At a moment of great global instability—with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order—the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce. We oppose this decision in the strongest terms,” the statement said. “In less than six months, the U.S. has shed at least 20 percent of its diplomatic workforce through shuttering of institutions and forced resignations. Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday filed a dissent slamming the Supreme Court decision for helping Trump unleash a “wrecking ball.” That wrecking ball has now made its first impact, but many more are on the way, as the president continues his demolition job on the federal government, imperiling hundreds of thousands of government workers’ livelihoods, not to mention the countless Americans who rely on them.

A federal judge just had to remind police that they shouldn’t shoot at journalists after several violent encounters during the protests opposing the Trump administration’s disastrous ICE raids in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera blocked the Los Angeles Police Department from wrongfully preventing journalists from accessing closed off areas, detaining or arresting journalists while they’re reporting, and using less lethal munitions (LLMs) and other crowd control weapons against them.

In a 14 page-filing, Vera said that the First Amendment claims made by the Los Angeles Press Club were likely to succeed, and granted them a temporary restraining order. “Indeed, given the fundamental nature of the speech interests involved and the almost daily protests throughout Southern California drawing media coverage, the identified harm is undoubtedly imminent and concrete,” he wrote in a filing.

Vera recounted multiple instances of journalists being cordoned away from the protests or detained and arrested by officers. Documentarian and activist Anthony Orendoff was detained for four days despite telling officers he was a member of the press.

Vera also recounted many instances of violence against members of the press. In one instance, an officer appeared to aim his gun at 9News Australia’s Lauren Tomasi while she was reporting live, and fired a rubber bullet which hit her in the leg on air. Photojournalist Michael Nigro, who stood high above the protests in a press vest and helmet, heard the sound of LLMs hitting a pole by his head, and later that day was struck in the helmet by a rubber bullet. Another unidentified photojournalist with a press pass was pushed over by a police officer, and trampled by a police horse.

Vera barred officers from “prohibiting a journalist from entering or remaining in the closed areas.” The judge also prohibited officers from “intentionally assaulting, interfering with, or obstructing any journalist” who is “gathering, “receiving, or processing information for communication to the public.”

He also barred officers from “citing, detaining, or arresting a journalist who is in a closed area for failure to disperse, curfew violation, or obstruction of a law enforcement officer for gathering, receiving, or processing information,” or using LLMs, like rubber bullets, and other crowd control measures like flash-bangs and chemical irritants like tear gas.

A hearing for a preliminary injunction was set for July 24.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is so upset with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s dismissal of the Epstein case that Bongino took the day off on Friday and may quit. Far-right commentator and Trump confidant Laura Loomer broke the story on Friday morning, and it was confirmed by Axios shortly after.  

“Kash Patel and Dan Bongino are LIVID with Pam Bondi over her DOJ memo and the lack of transparency from her office regarding the Jeffery Epstein files,” Loomer wrote on X. “Source tells me Dan Bongino is taking the day off today from his job as Deputy Director of the FBI, and there’s now speculation on whether or not he will return to his job at the @FBI over his disgust with Blondi’s lack of transparency and handling of the Epstein files.” 

“Pam Blondi has brought total embarrassment to President Trump,
Vice President JD Vance, Dan Bongino, and Kash Patel. She has also LIED to the American people,” added the conservative commentator, before offering some of her own insider analysis. “Kash Patel and Dan Bongino should call for Blondi’s public resignation today to save themselves and to also push for full transparency into the Epstein files. This is an issue the American people care deeply about. Someone needs to be fired for this. Giving Blondi courtesy to resign is more than she deserves. Trump should just FIRE her.” 

Axios confirmed that Bongino and Bondi clashed on Wednesday, and Bongino did not show up to work on Friday, though administration officials told the publication he’s not quitting just yet.

Welcome to Day 3 of the Epstein fallout. The MAGA feud has escalated since first catching fire on Sunday, when Bondi’s Justice Department and the FBI published a memo stating that there is no Epstein “client list” and that the disgraced millionaire pedophile did indeed kill himself—two points that directly contradicted the MAGA conspiracy theories that have engulfed a notable portion of the base for years now. The right was particularly incensed that the news also came from Bondi, Bongino, and FBI Director Kash Patel—three people who each previously insinuated or outright declared that there is some kind of coverup happening, and that Epstein may not have committed suicide. Now they’re trying—and failing—to move along like nothing happened. 

Bongino was apparently upset with Bondi for riling up the base too much by making the Epstein files, and the “client list” seem more consequential than they ended up being. Now Bondi is the center of MAGA’s ire. 

Only time will tell how much power Loomer’s call to fire Bondi will have on the administration. She was instrumental in getting former national security adviser Mike Waltz fired from the Trump administration for being a “neocon,” amid the Signalgate scandal.

Bongino and Patel are upset with Bondi for making promises none of them could keep. And the MAGA base is upset with all of them for failing to carry out their deep-state- busting mission by revealing Epstein’s client list and exposing the all-powerful pedophile cabal. But one person who no one on the right wants to blame for the Epstein files rollout crashing and burning so spectacularly is President Trump himself. Why are there so many calls to fire Bondi when Trump was sitting next to her in his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday defending her handling of the case and acting like anyone still interested in this infamous case was crazy? 

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump said then. “This guy has been talked about for years. You’re asking—we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And, are people still talking about this guy? This creep?”

People calling for Trump to fire Bondi seem to think that the attorney general is operating independently of the president. But who, if anyone, would be better able to deliver the unredacted list, the missing minute, or anything else related to their Epstein obsession, than their president?