Top DOJ National Security Lawyers Pushed Out in Broad Purge (1)

Key national security lawyers and the chief of the Justice Department’s professional misconduct office were among those pushed out of their positions this week amid a shakeup at the department.

Melissa MacTough and Brad Wiegmann, deputy assistant attorneys general at the DOJ’s National Security Division who have spent decades at the department, were both removed from their posts, according to people familiar with the moves.

MacTough oversaw the division’s intelligence office, while Wiegmann led its office of law and policy.

Their departures leave significant gaps in national security expertise at the department. “There’s literally no one at home. The lights are off,” said one former Justice Department official.

The National Security Division removals were reported earlier by the Washington Post.

Jeffrey Ragsdale, counsel for the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates employee misconduct, was also removed from his position, according to people familiar with the development. Ragsdale had served in that role, a career position, since 2020, and at OPR for nearly a decade, according to the department.

Elizabeth “Liz” Oyer, the pardon attorney, announced Friday she’d been fired, after three years in her role.

Adam Cohen, director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, on Saturday announced his removal.

“I served under five Presidents and 11 Attorneys General over my 26.5 years of service for the Department of Justice (DOJ). My personal politics were never relevant. Not until yesterday,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The Washington Post reported Tara Twomey, the head of the Executive Office for US Trustees, was also removed.

The removals are part of a broader strategy by the Trump Justice Department to push out longtime career officials.

Career leaders at the department’s immigration litigation office and tax division have recently opted to resign, rather than take forced reassignments to the administration’s group to prosecute so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Justice Department leaders have also expressed plans to prioritize immigration enforcement over other missions.

Todd Blanche, formerly Trump’s personal lawyer who was confirmed this week as the department’s second-in-command, has exempted US attorney’s offices near in border districts from federal hiring freezes, so they may add prosecutors for immigration and trafficking cases.