A Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Since the start of Donald Trump's second term, it's estimated that over 300,000 federal workers have been forced out of their jobs or have left voluntarily. and notable among them were thousands of federal prosecutors in the Justice Department.

These are generally ambitious, driven lawyers, who could have been making much more money in the private sector. The Attorney General Pam Bondi has made no bones about putting the Justice Department on political missions, and quite a few career prosecutors just could not abide that. including a man by the name of Troy Edwards. I remember I it's still seared into my memory. My dad would wake up in the morning at about four something in the morning every morning and iron his uniform.

That hiss of that iron is still seared into my memory because I remember thinking, Man, I want a job where I get to go serve, and I care so much about it that I'd wake up at four in the morning and iron my uniform. and the National Security Division gave me the chance to do that. As an assistant U.S. attorney, Edwards prosecuted major January 6th cases, helping to win convictions against members of the Oath Keepers. He later served as deputy chief of the national security section in the Eastern District of Virginia.

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