As the Department of Justice continues hemorrhaging Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the administration has put out a call for new recruits. And it’s one step above scribbling on the bathroom wall.
It’s been a rough year for the DOJ. Having kicked off the Trump administration by reorienting the venerable institution as Trump’s personal law firm, morale cratered and attrition began taking a toll. Whether it’s asking dedicated public servants to drop corruption cases as part of a corrupt political bargain or sign off on baseless prosecutions of Trump’s enemies, AUSAs across the country keep deciding enough is enough.
Historically, the Department of Justice sits on a mile high stack of resumes submitted by eager young lawyers hoping to nab one of the most prestigious jobs in law. Apparently that pipeline has run dry, because the DOJ is now begging for help on social media. Elon Musk’s X… it’s not just for AI-generated sexual exploitation anymore!
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They’re trying to staff the Department of Justice like they’re putting together an adult kickball team. Just slide into Mizelle’s DMs with a quick “feeling cute, might lie to a tribunal later” and see where it takes you!
For what its worth, Mizelle left his job as the Justice Department’s Chief of Staff in the fall, so it’s not clear why he’d have the authority to hire anyone. Maybe using a former DOJ leader for this ask is a way for the Department to maintain plausible deniability. On that note “plausible deniability” might be refrain we hear a lot from this DOJ in coming years.
In a fitting touch of competence, Mizelle’s DMs weren’t even open when he posted this. A user pointed this out and Mizelle responded with a brisk “Fixed!” It’s a level of attention to detail that sums up exactly why the DOJ is hurting for recruits.
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Fun fact: this desperate social media recruitment drive landed immediately after Mizelle’s ethics complaint against Judge James Boasberg collapsed spectacularly. Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit dismissed the misconduct complaint in part because Mizelle based it on an alleged non-public statement by Judge Boasberg that he never bothered to provide the Court. When Judge Sutton gave him an opportunity to correct the oversight… Mizelle just ghosted.
Crackerjack lawyering! So now Mizelle is bypassing Craigslist and heading straight to Twitter, seeking out the next generation of legal minds who will presumably also struggle with the whole “attaching evidence to filings” thing.
“Patriots needed” is a cool Fiverr pitch for an administration on the lookout for a JD who knows at least two easter eggs from Mein Kampf.
The brain drain at DOJ has gotten so severe that the administration is now sending military lawyers to serve as federal prosecutors. Posse Comitatus never really contemplated the domestic deployment of the JAG corps. Military lawyers practice under their own bespoke code, which doesn’t necessarily translate to enforcing federal criminal law. It’s like your estranged uncle calling and asking, “you’re a lawyer, right?” but with the highest stakes imaginable.
This is what happens when you try to “flood the zone.” It’s the same mentality that’s got the administration using AI to write transportation regulations and arresting journalists under the KKK Act. At some point, “flooding the zone” just means drowning yourself. You can only spread so thin before you run out of people willing to do your bidding.
McCarthy is a conservative talking head exhibiting a level of “principle over politics” that Jonathan Turley could never. Still, one must ask, “where was he before this?” One could have issued this call, for instance, WHEN THE ATTORNEY GENERAL STARTED CALLING THE DOJ TRUMP’S PERSONAL LAWYERS. That was a whole year ago. Shouldn’t that have been enough to sound this warning?
Somewhere out there, there’s an unemployed Federalist Society alum sitting in a pile of empty Chick-fil-A wrappers and Antonin Scalia prayer candles who will leap at the opportunity to be a right-wing DEI hire, filling a job they couldn’t sniff under normal circumstances. They’ll put in their time, collect the LinkedIn line item, and carry it with them going forward. If they’re lucky, enough time will pass that everyone will assume their time at the Department reflects their credentials as an attorney and not their reputation as a “needed Patriot.”
Fascism curious attorneys hope that chaos is a ladder. Hopefully they will not be so lucky. If we all, as a profession, keep our eye on the ball, there will be a reckoning. Any lawyer breaching the basic rules of the profession to further this administration’s legal outrages should face ethical scrutiny. And unlike Mizelle, we’re smart enough to attach the exhibits to our ethics complaints.
“Just following orders” should not cut it.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.