Fired Justice Department pardon attorney accuses the agency of 'ongoing
corruption,' abuse of power
[April 08, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department's recently fired pardon
attorney accused the leadership of the law enforcement agency of
“ongoing corruption," testifying Monday at a congressional hearing meant
to showcase concerns that the Trump administration is assaulting the
rule of law, abusing its power and forcing out career civil servants.
“It should alarm all Americans that the leadership of the Department of
Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and
responsible administration of justice,” said Liz Oyer, who has said she
was fired last month after refusing to recommend that the gun rights of
actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump's, be restored.
“It should offend all Americans that our leaders are treating public
servants with a lack of basic decency and humanity," she added.
The hearing represented the first time in the new Trump administration
that Justice Department lawyers who were either recently fired or quit
have spoken before Congress about the circumstances of their departures
and their concerns about the agency's direction. It unfolded as a wave
of resignations and firings have hollowed out the ranks of experienced
career lawyers at the department and as Attorney General Pam Bondi and
her leadership team team have signaled little patience for dissent
within the workforce, including by suspending a government attorney who
admitted in court that the deportation of a Maryland man to a notorious
El Salvador prison was a mistake.
"The Trump administration has unleashed an all-out assault on these
public servants, who are now facing attacks on their employment, their
integrity, their well-being, and even their safety,” Stacey Young, a
lawyer who left the Justice Department in January and is now leading a
group that advocates for department employees, told lawmakers at a
hearing convened by members of the House and Senate Judiciary
committees.
The warnings were stark, with lawyers who spent years at the Justice
Department recounting their experiences with unprecedented political
pressure that they said made them deeply uneasy and obliterated the
institution's norms.
Oyer decried what she described as the “callous cruelty with which DOJ
leadership is treating dedicated public servants.” She testified about
being abruptly fired without explanation last month, one day after
refusing to endorse the restoration of Gibson’s gun rights following a
misdemeanor domestic violence conviction, and being told security
officers were waiting in her office to escort her out of the building.
She said Justice Department leaders tried as recently as Friday night to
intimidate her into silence by dispatching armed deputy marshals to her
house to deliver her a letter warning her against testifying, though she
was able to forestall the arrival of the officers at her home.
[to top of second column]
|
Former Justice Department attorneys Liz Oyer, left, and Ryan
Crosswell participate in a hearing on the Justice Department on
Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite)
“The letter was a warning to me about the risks of testifying here
today. But I am here because I will not be bullied into concealing
the ongoing corruption and abuse of power at the Department of
Justice," Oyer said.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a
message seeking comment on Oyer's testimony. Deputy Attorney General
Todd Blanche has previously dismissed Oyer's statements as
inaccurate, without elaborating. The department attempted to invoke
executive privilege to prevent Oyer from telling Congress about the
circumstances of her departure. The legal principle broadly refers
to a president’s power to keep information from the courts, Congress
and the public to protect the confidentiality of presidential
decision-making. Her lawyer, Michael Bromwich, said the argument
that her testimony was barred by executive privilege was “completely
without merit.”
Another witness was former public corruption prosecutor who resigned
under protest amid the Justice Department’s dismissal of its case
against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Ryan Crosswell, who was not
involved in the Adams case, described the events surrounding the
move to dismiss the Adams case — so that the Democrat could help
Trump’s immigration crackdown — as “among the saddest in the
department’s history.”
“In a properly functioning justice system, any public official
wishing to avoid prison has to live by one rule of thumb: obey our
nation’s laws,” Crosswell said. “And this action raised an even more
chilling question: Is the Justice Department that will drop charges
against those who acquiesce to a political command a Justice
Department that will bring charges against those who don’t?”
He recalled how a senior Justice Department official directed
Crosswell's section to identify two prosecutors willing to submit a
motion seeking the dismissal of the Adams case, with the implicit
offer of career advancement for those who did and potential
punishment for those who did not. One ultimately stepped forward.
Crosswell resigned.
“I didn’t have a job lined up or insurance lined up, but I’d rather
be unemployed and not be insured than to work for someone that would
do something like that to my colleagues,” he said.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
