Solicitor General’s Office Reportedly Sees Mass Exodus As Wall Between White House, DOJ Disintegrates

At least eight top lawyers in the Justice Department’s solicitor general’s office are departing or have already announced their impending exit from the elite team, which is responsible for arguing on behalf of the Trump administration before the Supreme Court.

The turnover is high for the office in general, according to the Washington Post and the experts who spoke to the publication — and is especially high when you consider that the Trump administration is involved in lots of litigation with multiple cases challenging Trump’s lawless executive actions already before or on track to reach the high court. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to help it on its warpath to dismantle large swaths of the federal government and expand its deportation efforts, issues that look likely to come before the Court again and again. The administration has also, by all appearances, defied judicial orders it doesn’t like along its way.

The Post spoke to “several people close to the workforce who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss upcoming personnel changes.” They suggested that the people are leaving the office en masse for “various reasons” but the only one actually cited in the article is one TPM readers are now familiar with: the erosion of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House. Per the Post:

Many are uncomfortable or turned off by directives from Justice Department leaders, including Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand for “zealous advocacy” of President Donald Trump’s agenda, these people said.

We’ve seen the disintegration of this typical firewall between the DOJ and the White House’s political agenda play out in countless ways since Trump first came back to power, concerns that were only bolstered when, while issuing her Day 1 priority directives for the department, Attorney General Pam Bondi referred to Justice Department lawyers as “his lawyers,” referencing the President.

There have been countless examples of the repercussions of this erosion in the months since, including the mass firings of numerous prosecutors who were involved in prosecuting January 6 rioters in Ed Martin’s office and the forced resignation of a federal prosecutor in charge of the criminal division in Martin’s office, Denise Cheung, who resigned after refusing to open an investigation that Lee Zeldin wanted. The DOJ recently suspended one attorney, saying he did not argue “vigorously” enough that the Trump administration was blameless in the accidental deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland.

And as my colleague Khaya Himmelman has been reporting on this week, the Trump administration has even engaged in intimidation campaigns against former members of the DOJ who were forced out or fired for refusing to do Trump’s bidding, as well, like former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer.

Fate Of Education In The US Is At Steak

Sorry.

TPM received an email this afternoon flagging the deliciously dumb moment below. It is worth following the link in Josh’s Bluesky to watch for yourself.

For your enjoyment: here is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon talking about implementing AI in schools, but pronouncing it "A1," as in "A1 Steak Sauce" www.youtube.com/live/lxrg28z…

— Josh Kovensky (@joshkovensky.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 3:49 PM

What’s going on here? The Department of Education did not respond to TPM’s request for clarification. I’ll update you if I hear more.

Trump Wimps Out

In a Truth Social post that sent the U.S. stock market soaring, Trump announced he was placing a 90-day pause on the implementation of his mass global tariffs plan. He also said he was lowering his “reciprocal tariff” rate to just 10 percent, but upping the tariff rate on goods from China to 125 percent.

That came just as House Republicans quietly took a step toward approving House Rules Committee language that would, essentially, keep them from having to actually take a potentially very painful vote on House Democrats’ resolution to try to block Trump’s tariffs.

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