Former DOJ lawyers testify at bicameral hearing, say political loyalty is displacing rule of law

At a joint House and Senate hearing convened by Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Adam Schiff, former Department of Justice attorneys described what they called a systematic effort by political appointees to prioritize loyalty over law, leading to firings, resignations and threats to career staff.

"Follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead," former public integrity prosecutor Ryan Croswell told the panel, summarizing the professional standard he said was breached when his unit was ordered to dismiss a high‑profile case in New York. Croswell said he resigned after acting Department leadership told his office to file a motion to dismiss the charge against New York City Mayor Eric Adams "without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based."

The hearing focused on multiple recent incidents that witnesses said illustrate a pattern: the abrupt firing of Liz Oyer, who served as the department's pardon attorney; the resignation of Croswell and several of his colleagues in the Public Integrity Section after they were ordered to sign a dismissal; a unit reorganization and personnel actions in the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney's Office; and the suspension of a career official after he publicly said a deportation appeared to be erroneous.

"DOJ is entrusted with keeping us safe, upholding the rule of law and protecting our civil rights. It is not a personal favor bank for the president," Oyer testified after describing being fired in a hallway, she said, by a three‑sentence memo. She told the committee that, shortly after her dismissal, department security directed two armed special deputy U.S. Marshals to deliver a letter to her home warning her about testifying; she said the deputies were called off only after she confirmed receipt of the letter by email.

Croswell told members that public integrity prosecutors were asked to sign a motion to dismiss the Adams case and that promotional promises and implicit threats were used to induce compliance. "It was nearly eliminated in an hour over dismissal charges," he said of his section. Several lawmakers pressed Croswell on whether the evidence in the Adams matter, as publicly reported, would have supported prosecution; Croswell said that if the allegations in the indictment could be proved, "that looked like it would be a strong case."

Committee members and witnesses also discussed the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident whose removal to El Salvador drew a district judge's order to return him on the grounds that his removal risked persecution. Witnesses and some members described a subsequent suspension of a career DOJ official, Erez Raveni, after he questioned the removal. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and others said a stay issued during the hearing by Chief Justice John Roberts complicated immediate relief in that case.

Witnesses and lawmakers stressed the practical consequences of the personnel changes: reduced institutional knowledge, lower morale, fewer career lawyers willing to serve and, they said, weakened public safety and enforcement capacity. "When you fire them, you necessarily make American communities more vulnerable," Stacy Young, who founded Justice Connection after 18 years as a career DOJ litigator, testified.

Lawmakers on both sides of the hearing emphasized oversight; Rep. Raskin and Sen. Schiff said they convened the bicameral forum to do oversight that they said other congressional committees had declined to hold.

The hearing yielded no formal votes or legally binding actions; members called for further investigation and legal review. Several senators noted pending and ongoing litigation that has blocked portions of related executive orders and urged courts and bar associations to enforce professional and constitutional norms.

The committee said it planned more hearings on DOJ personnel and policy changes. Several witnesses said they were continuing to pursue public records requests and private litigation to obtain documents they said would corroborate their accounts.