Trump admin's desperate scramble to replace fleeing staff will boomerang: expert

In its desperation to replace fleeing prosecutors and defectors, President Donald Trump’s DOJ is now loosening hiring requirements for federal prosecutors. Trump’s DOJ says new applicants no longer need have any attorney experience to get a job. They can be fresh out of college, and CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid says Americans can probably expect predictable results.

“They have redesigned this agency to try to pursue MAGA priorities and in some cases, pursue the president's adversaries. And they've lost a lot of people in the process,” said Reid. “Some people have objected and walked out. Some people have been fired …”

Reid said the DOJ is undeniably having trouble managing its own caseload, with judges complaining about agency lawyers not meeting deadlines, as well as the shoddy quality of their work.

“That’s something you don't hear about with federal prosecutors. These are supposed to be the best of the best, which is part of why most offices have a rule that you need at least three years of experience before you can apply for a role,” said Reid, adding that new students fresh from school are not generally prepared for the workload or the court’s unforgiving requirements.

“The [Minnesota Civil Division] office has been inundated with these habeas petitions from folks who have been detained by ICE, a ton of work, a lot of criticism from judges,” said Reid. “As a recovering lawyer myself, that's a really sophisticated kind of situation to find yourself in with no legal or no courtroom experience. … But, again, this whole strategy at DOJ [is because] they want to remake this in Trump's image. But that has consequences.”

One CNN anchor pointed out that courts judges in Minnesota and Chicago are already dismissing DOJ cases because cases were brought too quickly or they weren't able to meet deadlines and requirements, and wondered if decreasing the level of prosecutors’ experience would make matters even worse.

“I talked to a lot of officials inside DOJ last year [during the firings]. I said, ‘are you confident you're going to be able to restock your lawyers here?’ And some of them said, ‘look, we only need a third of the number of lawyers we had before. I'll find people who will do it faster,” recalled Reid. “I think there was a lack of appreciation or respect for federal prosecutors federal workers in general.”

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