A Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice
3/31/202622 min
Thousands of federal prosecutors have been fired or have resigned from their roles since Pam Bondi took over as Attorney General. She has made no secret of weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue Donald Trump’s vendettas. One of those prosecutors is Troy Edwards, who quit a senior national-security position in the Eastern District of Virginia. As an assistant U.S. attorney in DC, Edwardshad won convictions against members of the Oath Keepers for January 6th-related offenses. Edwards is also the son-in-law of the former F.B.I. director James Comey, and, when the Justice Department indicted Comey on grounds widely seen as flimsy, Edwards knew he had reached his red line. (The charges were quickly dismissed, though without prejudice.) The New Yorker’s legal correspondent Ruth Marcus talks with Edwards about his decision to leave, how he broke it to his family, and why he thinks other prosecutors should not follow his lead.
Further reading:
- “Pam Bondi’s Contempt for Congress,” by Ruth Marcus
- “The Flimsy, Dangerous Indictment of James Comey,” by Ruth Marcus
- “Pam Bondi’s Power Play,” by Ruth Marcus
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First 90 secondsDavid Remnick· Host0:00
[theme music] You're listening to The Political Scene. I'm David Remnick. Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour.
Speaker 10:13
[theme music] This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
David Remnick· Host0:22
This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Since the start of Donald Trump's second term, it's estimated that over three hundred thousand federal workers have been forced out of their jobs or have left voluntarily, and notable among them were thousands of federal prosecutors in the Justice Department. These are generally ambitious, driven lawyers who could've been making much more money in the private sector. The Attorney General Pam Bondi has made no bones about putting the Justice Department on political missions, and quite a few career prosecutors just could not abide that, including a man by the name of Troy Edwards.
Troy Edwards· Guest1:04
I remember, I-it's still seared into my memory. My dad would wake up in the morning at about four-something in the morning every morning and iron his uniform. That hiss of that iron is still seared into my memory, because I remember thinking, "Man, I want a job where I get to go serve, and I care so much about it that I'd wake up at four in the morning and iron my uniform." And the National Security Division gave me the chance to do that.
David Remnick· Host1:28
As an assistant