Droves of former Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) officials are joining left-wing litigation firms to pursue lawsuits against the Trump administration.
The lawsuits, many brought by organizations now staffed by members of the prior administration, have slowed aspects of Trump’s agenda and contributed to the administration’s escalating frustration with the judiciary.
While some Biden administration attorneys have gone to established groups like Democracy Forward, others are starting their own firms with an explicit mission of obstructing President Donald Trump’s efforts.
“Democrat lawyers at Democrat law firms illegally conspired with Democrat government officials to violate the constitutional rights of President Trump, his top aides, and his supporters before November’s election,” Mike Davis, founder of the Article III project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And now that they’re out of power, they’re trying to interfere from the outside. This is yet another reason why the Senate must get to work and confirm President Trump’s nominees to ensure the will of the American people is respected and implemented.”
In April, numerous former DOJ attorneys joined Democracy Forward, a left-wing firm involved in dozens of current lawsuits against the administration, including cases challenging federal worker firings, grant terminations and plans to deport illegal migrants to El Salvador.
Biden DOJ officials who joined the firm include former Deputy Associate Attorney General Jodie Morse, who played a key role in the Biden DOJ’s task force dedicated to abortion, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Netter, who opposed several states pro-life laws in court, along with three other senior attorneys.
Netter’s name already appears in several cases against Trump enacting his policies. He worked on a lawsuit challenging Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appointment as acting librarian of Congress, as well as the case before Judge James Boasberg challenging removal of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, according to court records.
Democracy Forward brought four other former DOJ attorneys on board in May, as well as Biden’s former Deputy Associate Attorney General Paul Wolfson, the group announced.
Rachel Rossi, who served as director of the Office for Access to Justice at the Biden DOJ, became the president of Alliance for Justice (AFJ) in April. AFJ most recently came out against all of Trump’s new judicial nominees, the first picks of his second term.
Omar Noureldin, who was senior counsel in the Biden DOJ’s Civil Rights Division run by Kristen Clarke, joined Common Cause as senior vice president of the Policy & Litigation Department in May. Common Cause backed initiatives to remove Trump from the ballot during the 2024 election and has opposed Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship.
“As our lead policy and legal expert, Omar will continue our fight to keep power where it belongs—in the hands of the people—not the politicians,” Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón told the DCNF. “An experienced attorney, he will help us put an end to the rampant corruption in Washington, stop the hostile takeover of the media, and get big money out of politics. He goes to work every day to make sure the government works for us, not just the wealthy and well-connected like Elon Musk.”
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland moved in May to global giant Arnold & Porter, which has multiple pending cases against the Trump administration, Bloomberg Law reported. Arnold & Porter signed on to an amicus brief backing Perkins Coie’s lawsuit against the administration over Trump’s executive order against the firm targeting its government contracts and employee security clearances.
“It is an honor to return to Arnold & Porter, where I first learned how to be a lawyer and about the important role lawyers can play in ensuring the rule of law,” Garland said in a press release.
Former Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen announced on LinkedIn in May he would be joining WilmerHale, which sued the Trump administration in March after Trump issued an executive order limiting the firm’s government contracts and security clearances. Wilmer Hale is represented by leading conservative attorney and President George W. Bush’s former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement in the case challenging Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump slammed WilmerHale for “welcoming” former special counsel Robert Mueller and his aides after their probe that ultimately did not find collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, writing in the order that WilmerHale is “bent on employing lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process and distort justice. A judge struck down the order in May.
Democracy Forward, WilmerHale and Alliance for Justice did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Ways To Combat The Trump Administration’
Former civil rights division attorney Stacey Young, who ran an internal DOJ advocacy group that pushed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, launched a group called Justice Connection to support fired employees in February.
Justice Connection is now starting a pro bono legal network for DOJ employees who believe they are “targeted” by employment actions or investigations, the group announced Tuesday. Volunteers for the pro bono network are themselves former DOJ employees.
Peter Carr, who was fired from the DOJ in April but previously served as the spokesman for special counsels Robert Mueller and Jack Smith, is now running communications for Justice Connection. He directed the DCNF to the group’s press release.
“Since taking office, this administration has torn through DOJ’s workforce with recklessness and retribution — firing, threatening, and demoting hundreds of career civil servants simply for doing their jobs,” Young said in a statement. “Attorneys in the Justice Connection Legal Network are now helping those employees determine the best path forward when facing a crossroad and representing them throughout the process when they’re unfairly targeted.”
Another Biden DOJ trial attorney who left the department in February, Clayton Bailey, announced in May his new firm, The Civil Service Law Center, to represent fired federal workers. The firm filed a class action lawsuit June 3 against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on behalf of employees who were terminated.
“Since leaving DOJ, I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to combat the Trump Administration’s unprecedented efforts to dismantle the federal government,” Bailey wrote on LinkedIn. “To that end, I am excited to announce Civil Service Law Center LLP, a new public service oriented law firm focused on representing displaced federal workers in federal court.”
The firm “is committed to defending the dedicated federal employees who go to work every day to serve the American people,” Bailey told the DCNF.
Former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) attorney Daniel Jacobson is supporting at least five cases seeking to re-animate Biden-era grants terminated by the Trump administration, the DCNF previously reported. He launched his own new firm shortly after leaving the government in January to help those “impacted by the Administration’s funding actions.”
Several members of his new firm, like John Robinson and Kyla Snow, worked for the Biden DOJ. Snow defended the administration’s efforts to pressure social media platforms to censor content in the free speech case Missouri v. Biden.
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