The ongoing federal government shutdown — which officially became the longest in history this week — is starting to hamper operations within President Donald Trump's administration.
Politico reported Thursday in its newsletter that one senior official at the Department of Justice (DOJ) said candidly that his office has been unable to get work done in civil cases as a result of the shutdown. During a recent speech at the conservative Federalist Society's National Lawyers' Convention, Ketan Bhirud — an associate deputy attorney general — complained that the shutdown is impacting his office "quite a bit."
"I shouldn’t say this, because there’s going to be people who like hearing this — probably not in this room – but it’s hard for us in the administration to get anything done during the shutdown," said Bhirud, who is an advisor to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on antitrust, energy, natural resources, tax and civil rights issues.
"There’s so many people who are out, and even those of us who are in ... most of the things we’re working on, at least that are civil, we’re not able to work on," he added. "And we don’t have the resources or the help to get it done."
Bhirud didn't give specifics on what work was being held up by the shutdown, and he clarified that the DOJ's work on criminal and national security matters had gone on effectively uninterrupted despite DOJ personnel working without pay.
Politico also reported that there's a growing exodus of staff who are going on to launch law firms aimed at helping plaintiffs fight against the Trump administration. Former DOJ attorneys Jessica Merry Samuels and Clayton Bailey co-founded the Civil Service Law Center, which represents former federal employees challenging their terminations. Bailey said he left the DOJ as he felt he could no longer defend the administration's actions.
"The breaking point is when ... the government is acting in a way that can’t be defended legitimately, in my view, without impairing your duties to be honest to courts," Bailey told Politico. "That’s when the real danger lights come on and I, at least, looked for the exits."
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