One letter said, “It became clear that it was time for me to go.”
Another read, “I cannot continue to serve in such a hostile and toxic work environment.”
Amid a growing wave of firings, resignations and retirements from the Justice Department, some former agency officials are curating a public online display of the farewell messages of ousted employees. Some of the letters from purged non-political career Justice Department attorneys warn of a threat to democracy and a crumbling of the norms and standards in federal prosecutions.
Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department employees, has organized and posted the online page of goodbye messages. The organization’s executive director and founder, Stacey Young, a former civil division attorney for the Justice Department, said the Justice Department purge has now eclipsed 5,000 employees since January, including resignations, firings and retirements.
Some of those ousted have included high-profile department leaders, who wrote farewell messages expressing their fears about the trajectory of the Justice Department as agency employees have been purged.
“These messages are from people who are trying to encapsulate the thought of losing their careers,” said Peter Carr, a longtime Justice Department public affairs specialist who was fired earlier this year. Carr, now a spokesperson for Justice Connection, told CBS News, “Somebody needed to capture all of these letters, so that they’re not lost to history.”
“These messages show what is happening in our country at this moment,” he said.
One of the messages posted was written by Maurene Comey, a former New York-based federal prosecutor, who is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and previously handled part of the criminal case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When she was fired this year, Maureen Comey wrote, “If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain. . . . Do not let that happen.”
“Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought,” she continued. “Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place.”
Maureen Comey sued the Trump administration in September, saying her ouster was unlawful and unconstitutional.
Hagan Scotten, who resigned from the office of the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York after Justice Department leaders intervened to drop the office’s criminal prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, left a blistering farewell letter to teammates.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion, Scotten wrote. “But it was never going to be me.”
Patty Hartman, who was fired in April from her communications position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C., told CBS News she especially wanted to share a goodbye message with her team, because her firing was unexpected, abrupt and resulted in immediately losing access to her government-issued phone and computer.
“The people in charge who are supposed to protect us— our fellow Americans who we elected, along with those who were appointed, and swore an OATH to protect this nation and our Constitution — now use the Constitution as a weapon to suit their own ends,” Hartman’s farewell message said.
“When someone disappears from the office without notice, there’s a tendency to think they did something wrong,” Hartman told CBS News. “It was important for me to publicly acknowledge my illegal termination because so many others were experiencing it and, quite frankly, I was pissed off.”
The Justice Department declined a request to comment to CBS News about the firings, resignations or the online farewell messages.
Michael Romano, a prosecutor who handled some Jan. 6 prosecutions, noted his work on Capitol insurrection cases when he resigned in March.
“Many rioters saw their relationship with the rule of law as transactional, as they demonstrated when they told police officers that they had ‘backed the blue’ in the past and thus, that the officers should stand down or join the mob . . . .,” he wrote in his message. “They expected, in other words, that the rule of law did not apply to them. And, but for the work of the Capitol Siege Section, they would have been right.”
Romano told CBS News, “It was important to have my colleagues see me standing up for the work we did. I needed to say it and people needed to hear it.”
Meredith Burrell, a former civil rights office attorney, wrote in her message, “We were entrusted with the serious responsibility of engaging the power of the federal government to use the rule of law to vindicate the rights of marginalized people . . . I am still processing the contrast between those 25 years and the last four months.”
Other farewell messages are limited to praise of colleagues and law enforcement. Greg Rosen, who resigned in May after serving as the head of the unit that prosecuted Capitol riot cases, wrote in his message, “To those who partnered with me on the January 6 investigation and prosecution: you represent the highest ideals of our nation—unwavering in your commitment to the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power. To the officers who were injured, physically and emotionally, protecting the greatest legislative body in the world: thank you. You are the embodiment of heroism.”
Sybil Barksdale, a former official in the agency’s Office of Violence against Women, wrote in her message, “Throughout my career, through changing administrations, evolving legal landscapes, and countless initiatives, I had the privilege of working alongside exceptional colleagues who shared an unwavering dedication to justice and protecting those most vulnerable.”
A resigned FBI analyst wrote, “If I learned anything in the FBI, it is that yes, you can say no. If something is wrong, unjust, or unethical, you speak up, and sometimes speaking up means saying ‘no.'”
