Career employees at the Department of Justice (DOJ) who “won’t implement” President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda “should leave,” former Trump White House lawyer Mark Paoletta said on Monday.
In a post on X, Paoletta, who serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Renewing America, responded to an article from Politico reporter Josh Gerstein, in which it was revealed that officials within the DOJ are in “fear” of Trump’s return to office, with several considering “heading for the exits” rather than staying.
A DOJ official told the outlet that “everyone” they had spoken to was “losing their minds” in fear of Trump and his incoming agenda. The DOJ official, who had been “granted anonymity,” told the outlet that “the fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.”
“Hopefully, they will be as committed to helping President Trump implement his agenda as they did for President Biden,” Paoletta wrote in his post. “Of course, political leadership welcomes feedback to help improve a project. But once the decision is made to move forward, career employees are required to implement the President’s plan.”
Paoletta added: “If these career DOJ employees won’t implement President Trump’s program in good faith, they should leave. Those employees who engage in so-called ‘resistance’ against the duly-elected President’s lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy.”
In his post, he noted that the American people elected Trump to serve as president and “carry out his agenda,” which includes, Paoletta wrote:
Securing the southern border, mass deportations of illegal aliens (beginning with rapists and murderers), surging resources to process immigration/asylum claims to clear out backlog and end widespread abuse of the asylum system, ending automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens, and taking federal actions to prevent sanctuary cities from obstructing federal immigration enforcement,
Restoring law and order across out country, including rescuing our cities from mob violence and left-wing soft on crime prosecutors,
Immediately stopping the lawfare and persecution of political opponents that is unprecedented in American history and destroying our democracy,
Granting pardons or commutations to January 6th defendants and other defendants who have been subjected to politically-driven lawfare prosecutions and sentences,
Abolishing DEI in government and taking action against those companies and universities that engage in racial discrimination,
Protecting Americans’ right to speech, religion, and the Second Amendment,
Protecting religious liberties, including investigating and prosecuting the horrific antisemitism ripping through this country,
Protecting parents’ rights from irreparable transgender surgeries and procedures on minor children, and investigating those who have pushed this on minor children[.]
“These are all positions President Trump campaigned on and that career DOJ lawyers may be working on to accomplish President Trump’s lawful agenda that was approved by a landslide vote of the American People,” Paoletta added. “DOJ career employees do not set the agenda. In fact, they are required to help implement this agenda.”
In response to Paoletta’s post, Gerstein wrote in another article that Paoletta was reportedly “playing a role in drafting potential changes” to the DOJ’s policies under the Trump administration.
