At least five senior lawyers at the Justice Department civil rights office tasked with prosecuting police misconduct are leaving the office, according to multiple people familiar with the situation, continuing upheaval that has plagued the division tasked with enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws.
The departures, announced Monday, include Jim Felte, the chief of the criminal section, and several of his deputies, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The criminal section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division prosecutes violations including misconduct by law enforcement officers. The section was involved in prosecutions of police officers related to the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in 2020.
The leadership departures come after the department offered some section employees an early retirement option. The criminal section was not included in an earlier offer extended to other sections last year.
The announcement also follows a CBS News report that Harmeet Dhillon, the political appointee leading the division, told staff they wouldn’t be involved in any investigation into the fatal shooting last week of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer.
The department’s response to that incident may have been the last straw for some of the departing employees, one of the people said.
A Justice Department official said five career lawyers in the section submitted early retirement paperwork prior to the shooting.
“Although we typically don’t comment on personnel matters, we can confirm that the Criminal Section Leadership gave notice to depart the Civil Rights Division and requested to participate in the Department of Justice’s Early Retirement Program well before the events in Minnesota. Any suggestion to the contrary is false,” the official said in a statement.
The voluntary early retirement program allows up to 70 Civil Rights Division employees to retire earlier than under the standard process. Employees must have served as least 25 years of government service at any age, or at least 20 years if they are older than 50, according to a Jan. 6 memo from Dhillon to Civil Rights Division employees, seen by Bloomberg Law.
Employees retiring early must give notice of their decision by Feb. 13 and designate a retirement date no later than April 18, the memo says.
Felte was one of two remaining section chiefs at the Civil Rights Division who predated the second Trump administration. The division’s other section chiefs have left or been pushed out in the last year, part of a slew of departures of career leaders at the division since President Donald Trump took office and revamped the unit’s priorities.
Dhillon, Trump’s former personal lawyer and pick to lead the division, has shifted the division’s focus to prioritize conservative causes, including defending gun rights and investigating anti-Christian bias.
The departures were first reported by MS Now.
— With assistance from
To contact the reporters on this story:
To contact the editor responsible for this story: