XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics.immigration   
   XPost: alt.politics.trump   
   From: j63840576@gmail.com   
      
   Hundreds of former employees from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights   
   Division are sounding the alarm about Assistant Attorney General Harmeet   
   Dhillon’s perversion of the division into a tool for pro-MAGA lawfare.   
      
   In April, The New York Times reported on a mass exodus of employees as   
   Dhillon was twisting the division from one that worked to protect voting   
   rights and school desegregation laws to one that fights against assault   
   weapon bans and against diversity at public institutions.   
      
   Dhillon responded by saying that the employees who left would “rather not   
   do what their job requires them to do” — an ironic claim from someone who   
   seems preoccupied with pressing public matters such as gaining more social   
   media followers.   
      
   In an open letter released Tuesday, nearly 300 former employees rebuked her   
   allegation, saying that many of them worked for presidents of both parties   
   — but that Dhillon’s debasing of the department is unprecedented.   
      
       Every election brought changes, but the fundamental mission of our work   
   remained the same. That’s why most of us planned to stay at the Division   
   following the 2024 election. But after witnessing this Administration   
   destroy much of our work, we made the heartbreaking decision to leave—along   
   with hundreds of colleagues, including about 75 percent of attorneys. Now,   
   we must sound the alarm about the near destruction of DOJ’s once-revered   
   crown jewel.   
      
   The signatories, who worked in sections including those that focused on   
   disability, immigrant and voting rights, said they left because “this   
   Administration turned the Division’s core mission upside down, largely   
   abandoning its duty to protect civil rights.”   
      
   The letter cites the administration’s decisions to drop various voting   
   rights cases alleging racist discrimination, to withdraw findings and pull   
   out of settlement agreements that sought to hold abusive police departments   
   accountable, and to dismiss a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of immigrant   
   children at a Florida facility.   
      
      
   The letter alleges that the administration “launched a coordinated effort   
   to drive us out” that involved reassigning many of them to jobs unrelated   
   to their expertise, demoting others and Dhillon “encouraging everyone to   
   resign after a period of paid leave while threatening layoffs if enough   
   staff did not accept.”   
      
   The Justice Department did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for   
   comment.   
      
   The circumstances described here sound similar to the strategy described by   
   Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who once   
   threatened to put civil servants “in trauma” by making them “not want to go   
   to work.”   
      
   The letter ends with praise for those at the DOJ who elected to stay and   
   try to uphold civil rights despite the Trump administration’s goals. And   
   while the former employees end their letter with the hope that “one day we   
   can return the Division to its righteous work,” they also had a call to   
   action for their fellow Americans: “Demand that the Division enforce our   
   civil rights laws and defend the Constitution’s promise of equal justice   
   for all.”   
      
   Ja'han Jones	   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)