WASHNGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has been so depleted of legal talent that it can’t handle the 2,000 immigration arrests in Minnesota since December, let alone constitutional challenges to President Trump’s Operation Metro Surge. Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson confirmed that 25 JAG officers, all uniformed lawyers in the Army, Navy and other armed services, will serve as special assistant U.S. attorneys in Minneapolis. At full strength the U.S. Justice Department had 10,000 career lawyers. It was the world’s large law office. Since Trump assumed the presidency a year ago, hundreds of these career lawyers have resigned rather than be party to Trump’s weaponization of the Department for political retribution and wild-hair schemes like an armed take-over of Greenland. Many other Justice Department lawyers have been fired for non-compliance. These departures all followed reckless lay-offs by Trump budget-buster Elon Musk early in the Trump presidency.
