DOJ Civil Rights Division Effectively Dismantled as 75% of Career Lawyers Quit Under Bondi

By December 2025, approximately 75% of career attorneys in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division had departed since Trump took office — nearly 400 lawyers total. Former employees described the division as "destroyed." The administration had dropped a Georgia voting restrictions lawsuit, dismissed a suit over abuse of migrant children, and redirected the division toward anti-DEI enforcement. A December sign-on letter from civil rights organizations called for Congress to hold DOJ accountable for abandoning civil rights enforcement.