Paulose Move Averted More Resignations?So what provoked U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose’s sudden move back to Washington? The Washington Post reports that Paulose’s interview with the National Review might have something to do with it. In the interview, a response to the variety of employee complaints against her, she decried the “McCarthyite hysteria that permits the anonymous smearing of any public servant who is now, or ever may have been, a member of the Federalist Society; a person of faith; and/or a conservative (especially a young, conservative woman of color).”
From the Post:
The brief interview provoked some of Paulose’s staff, according to her predecessor as Minnesota U.S. attorney, Thomas W. Heffelfinger. He said in an interview last night that “at least one and as many as three of her current staff managers either had resigned or were threatening to resign today.”
Such defections would have been the second in Paulose’s office in less than a year. This spring, her top assistant and two other senior prosecutors stepped down from their management responsibilities, saying they no longer could work with her.
“Last week she was talking about staying, and today she is leaving,” said Heffelfinger, a state and federal prosecutor for nearly 20 years before he resigned last year to enter private practice. “So something happened.”
Her departure “was a mutual decision” between Paulose and officials in Justice’s headquarters, said one source familiar with the decision, speaking about a personnel matter on the condition of anonymity.
