Lead
Former and departing Justice Department employees have begun posting farewell letters to a public online archive that chronicles a wave of firings, resignations and retirements tied to the Trump administration. The archive, organized by Justice Connection, surfaced on November 23, 2025 and collects messages from career prosecutors and staff who warn that long-standing norms and prosecutorial independence are under strain. The project’s organizers say the purge has surpassed 5,000 departures since January, and several high‑profile departures cite interference in cases and a toxic workplace as reasons for leaving.
Key Takeaways
- Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department employees, launched a public archive that collects farewell notes from ousted or departing staff, visible online as of November 23, 2025.
- The group’s executive director, Stacey Young, reports the total number of firings, resignations and retirements tied to the purge has exceeded 5,000 since January 2025.
- Several prominent former prosecutors — including Maureen Comey, Hagan Scotten and Michael Romano — posted messages warning that firings and interventions have chilled prosecutorial independence.
- Some departures followed reported interventions in politically sensitive matters, including the withdrawal of a prosecution involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to multiple notes in the archive.
- Those who left include career civil rights and Capitol riot prosecutors; some letters emphasize continued pride in colleagues and the rule of law, while others describe fear and toxic conditions.
- The Justice Department declined to comment to CBS News when contacted about the retirements, firings and the public archive.
Background
The Justice Department has historically included both career civil servants and politically appointed leaders; removals of career attorneys in large numbers are uncommon and attract institutional concern. Career prosecutors typically remain in place across administrations to preserve continuity in federal enforcement and to insulate charging decisions from partisan pressure. Departures at scale therefore raise questions about how the department will sustain institutional norms, including independent charging decisions and consistent application of prosecutorial standards.
Justice Connection — founded and led by Stacey Young, a former civil division attorney — built the archive to preserve farewell messages that might otherwise be lost after abrupt terminations and locked devices. The project’s organizers framed the archive as a historical record documenting internal dissent and the personal accounts of those who left. News organizations have reported a series of high‑visibility exits across March, April and May 2025, spanning policy and litigation offices, civil rights units and the Capitol Siege Section.
Main Event
The online archive groups short letters and longer reflections from former DOJ employees who describe why they left. Some messages are expressions of professional pride and gratitude for colleagues; others are sharp warnings about the department’s direction. Maureen Comey, a former New York‑based federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, posted a note arguing that arbitrary removal of career prosecutors risks instilling fear in remaining staff and undermining prosecutions.
Hagan Scotten resigned after Justice Department leaders intervened, according to his farewell, to discontinue a criminal prosecution involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams; Scotten’s message criticized colleagues who would not withstand what he portrayed as improper pressure. Michael Romano, who worked on Jan. 6 prosecutions, specifically referenced the Capitol Siege Section and the importance of those indictments in upholding the rule of law as he announced his March resignation.
Other authors, like Patty Hartman, described abrupt terminations that included immediate loss of access to government phones and computers; Hartman said she posted her message to prevent assumptions that sudden departures signaled culpability. Several notes emphasize the emotional toll — anger, dismay and a determination to have the record reflect the reasons for leaving. The Justice Department declined to comment when contacted about the pattern of departures and the public archive.
Analysis & Implications
A sustained turn‑over of career attorneys can alter institutional memory and capacity. Career prosecutors carry forward precedents, investigative relationships and internal practices that ensure consistent application of federal law; their mass exit reduces that continuity and can make the department more dependent on political appointees. Over time, this dynamic may change charging choices, plea practices and the allocation of enforcement resources, with downstream effects on state‑federal cooperation and the pace of major investigations.
Politically sensitive decisions — such as reported interventions in prosecutions tied to public officials — amplify concerns about impartiality. If line prosecutors perceive that lawful, evidence‑based charges can be reversed for political reasons, remaining attorneys may avoid cases seen as controversial, or alter charging strategies to minimize risk. That dynamic, in turn, can erode public confidence in equal application of the law.
There are also personnel and operational consequences: replacing thousands of staff requires recruitment, training and institutional onboarding that cannot match lost experience overnight. Specialized units — for example, civil rights teams or the Capitol Siege prosecutors — rely on institutional expertise that is difficult to replicate. Over time, increased reliance on short‑term hires or rotating detailees could shift office cultures and priorities.
Comparison & Data
| Metric | Reported value |
|---|---|
| Departures cited by Justice Connection | 5,000+ since January 2025 |
| Notable resignations mentioned | Maureen Comey (NY), Hagan Scotten, Michael Romano, Meredith Burrell, Greg Rosen, Patty Hartman |
The archive aggregates individual, qualitative accounts rather than producing an independently audited head count; the 5,000 figure comes from Justice Connection’s tally. That number, if accurate, represents an unusually large personnel shift over a single year for a federal department and would merit further independent verification from official personnel records. The table above is intended to juxtapose the project’s headline figure with named departures featured in the public collection.
Reactions & Quotes
Several of the posted notes spoke directly to colleagues and the public about motives for departure; the following are brief excerpts placed into context.
“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain. . . . Do not let that happen.”
Maureen Comey, former federal prosecutor
Comey’s statement frames her departure as a warning about chilling effects on prosecutorial independence if removals are perceived as arbitrary.
“When someone disappears from the office without notice, there’s a tendency to think they did something wrong… it was important for me to publicly acknowledge my illegal termination because so many others were experiencing it and, quite frankly, I was pissed off.”
Patty Hartman, former DOJ communications official
Hartman’s letter highlights the abrupt administrative realities of certain terminations and the reputational harm that can follow immediate de‑provisioning of devices and accounts.
“To those who partnered with me on the January 6 investigation and prosecution: you represent the highest ideals of our nation—unwavering in your commitment to the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power.”
Greg Rosen, former head of the Capitol riot prosecution unit
Rosen’s message, by contrast, emphasizes institutional pride and solidarity among colleagues who worked on high‑profile prosecutions even as others voiced alarm.
Unconfirmed
- Justice Connection’s figure of 5,000 departures since January 2025 is reported by the organization and has not been independently verified against official DOJ personnel records.
- Specific causal links between particular removals and individual policy directives or orders from named political appointees remain unverified in the public record.
- Attribution of every posted farewell letter to the listed author is assumed based on the archive entries; the archive’s provenance and verification procedures have not been publicly documented in detail.
Bottom Line
The online archive of farewell letters serves as a curated record of dissension, gratitude and alarm from career Justice Department employees who resigned or were fired in 2025. The collection reveals recurring themes — concern over prosecutorial independence, anger at abrupt terminations, and pride in colleagues’ work — and has amplified questions about whether mass departures will change the department’s capabilities and culture.
For oversight and public confidence, independent verification of the archive’s headline figures and more transparency about the reasons for removals would be essential next steps. In the near term, lawmakers, watchdogs and the department itself face a choice: investigate and, if warranted, repair institutional processes to preserve impartial enforcement, or risk longer‑term erosion of norms that have historically insulated federal prosecutors from transient political pressures.