DOJ Asks DOJ Tax Attorneys to Join the Team(s) Necessary to Defend Trump's and Musk's Rampage Through Government (2/27/25; 2/28/25)

Bloomberg’s Tax Report has an article titled DOJ Seeks Rapid Lawyer Transfers to Defend Trump Agenda in Court, here. The article is behind a paywall so that nonsubscribers will not be able to access. I will summarize the parts related to the Tax Division.

The powers that be in DOJ are asking DOJ Tax and DOJ Civil Rights attorneys to transfer to the civil litigation sections (“federal programs, appellate, and immigration litigation”) handling the flurry of suits against the Trump/Musk actions.

I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind, other than a Trump true believer, moving from DOJ Tax to that section. The exception might be those DOJ Tax attorneys at risk of some RIF of Tax attorneys where less competent DOJ Tax attorneys might be weeded out.

The article also suggests that in recruiting attorneys for the flurry of litigation, DOJ indicated a willingness to consider “external attorneys.” Reading between the lines, I think they are saying that attorneys that the DOJ Components would have otherwise not accepted might be able to join the litigation teams to deal with this flurry of lawsuits.  In short, the less competent who must be willing to grovel to Trump and his DOJ Team. Those “new hire” attorneys would seem to be in a probationary period subject to at will firing. So, they would have to be willing to take the risk and mitigate the risk by sucking up to the Trump loyalists.

Added 2/28 12:15pm:

The Washington Post has an article that seems to cover this topic, although the Tax Division is not mentioned specifically. Perry Stein, Justice Dept. hires for court battles as Trump slashes other agencies (WaPo 2/27/28), here, which may be behind a paywall. Key bullet points from the article are:

• DOJ is recruiting attorneys from DOJ Components to work on the flurry of cases brought against Trump’s aggressive re-ordering of the federal administrative agencies. “The hirings are largely to fill openings created by the high number of civil division attorneys who have resigned since the 2024 presidential election * * * *.”
• The recruiting initiative “gives the Justice Department an opportunity to bring a slew of attorneys who align ideologically with the president into career positions in high-profile sections of the department.”
• “The attorneys would work under senior political appointees being hired to the Justice Department, many of whom are attorneys from conservative law firms and Republican state governments.”
• “The Justice Department is also planning to temporarily assign people to the civil divisions from other offices to defend Trump administration policies, according to a public listing on LinkedIn. “
• The Trump Administration “has pushed out or transferred top career officials who held powerful jobs in agency, creating uncertainty and mistrust among the career workforce by (sic) according to people familiar. But it has not fired or laid off large swaths of rank and file attorneys or staff.”
• The Administration has created “a division focused on fighting what are known as ‘sanctuary cities,’ which are typically Democratic cities with a policy of protecting immigrants who are in the country illegally and not cooperating with federal authorities to deport them.”
• DOJ “officials have transferred veteran career officials from other divisions — many of whom have little background in immigration law — to this office, giving them the option of quitting if they do not want to work there.”

 JAT Note: The latter maneuver was applied to David Hubbert of the Tax Division. See Deputy AAG Tax Hubbert Removed and Reassigned to Sanctuary City Program (Whatever That Is) (DOJ Tax Division Alumni Blog 2/7/25; 2/11/25), here.