In a press release on January 31, 2025 — roughly a week and a half into Donald Trump's second presidency — attorney Stacey Young explained why she had left the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Young, who worked in the DOJ Civil Division and later the DOJ Civil Rights Division, declared, "Our democracy and the rule of law depend on a robust, apolitical civil service, above all at the Department of Justice. But the new administration is directing an all-out assault on the career public servants who are the Department's backbone."
During a Saturday morning, May 24 appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend," Young called out Trump's willingness to use the DOJ against his political foes. Host Jonathan Capehart cited the president's recent threat to investigate Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé Knowles and other celebrities who supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election as an especially egregious example.
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Trump is now four months into his second term, and Young's view of his presidency hasn't grown any less negative.
Young told Capehart and fellow "The Weekend" hosts Eugene Daniels (a Politico reporter) and Elise Jordan (a Never Trump conservative), "Just in the last week, we've seen DOJ charge or sue or investigate or threaten to investigate 11 Democrats who happen to be rivals of this president. Pursuing investigations, pursuing prosecutions of your rivals — pursuing retribution, and using DOJ as a weapon to do so — that is antithetical to what DOJ must do to uphold the rule of law. And it's a terrifying transition from where we were."
The former DOJ attorney warned that if the Trump Administration can use DOJ against prominent Democrats today, everyday citizens will also be in danger. And she is troubled by far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist/attorney Ed Martin's presence in DOJ. Martin formerly served as interim U.S. attorney for DOJ's District of Columbia office before Trump appointed Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to that position.
Young told Capehart, Daniels and Jordan, "I think everybody should be very afraid right now. We're seeing that Ed Martin is weaponizing the institution he was ostensibly hired to de-weaponize. And what he is doing, what he said openly, is that when DOJ doesn't have the evidence required to prosecute people, DOJ is going to name and shame them — which is antithetical to what DOJ is tasked with doing. And it violates important tenets of the Justice Manual, which is kind of the Bible for prosecutors and the Justice Department."
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Young continued, "And the Justice Manual says very clearly that you cannot identify uncharged parties. You cannot disclose nonpublic information. You can't declare that somebody is guilty without a finding of guilt. So we should be scared not only because DOJ is investigating and charging, prosecuting individuals who seem to be targets just for retribution, but it's also attacking individuals who the DOJ is not finding enough evidence to actually pursue. So, everything he's doing right now is absolutely out of step with the longstanding institutional norms of the Department. And it's a terrifying shift."
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Watch the full video below or at this link.