President Donald Trump's purge of the Justice Department has triggered a mass exodus of talent and thrown the institution into turmoil. But according to a report published on Monday in The New Yorker by Eyal Press, the upheaval has also exposed a quieter story: several career professionals who took considerable risks to stand up to Trump, even though their efforts largely failed. Their experiences offer a rare window into how the department's career lawyers — the prosecutors and civil rights attorneys expected to serve regardless of which party holds the White House — have reacted when political directives collided with their judgment.

Press opens with the case of Celia Cohen and Danielle Sassoon, two Justice Department officials who resigned in protest after Trump ordered them to stop prosecuting New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who had been accused of accepting bribes. Their departures turned an internal standoff into a public one, and Press documents a range of other acts of resistance against behavior he characterizes as lawless.

One of the earliest to leave was Stacey Young, an attorney in the department's Civil Rights Division, who exited almost immediately after Trump was inaugurated. "Unlike some of her peers, Young took Trump at his word when he promised to use his power to exact revenge on his enemies should he be reëlected," Press wrote. Young had also read Project 2025, the blueprint issued by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which called for reclassifying civil servants as at-will employees — making it easier to replace them with politically aligned subordinates — and for rooting out "progressive ideology" in the federal bureaucracy. In 2016, Young had founded a group within the D.O.J. to address gender disparities and sexual misconduct.

Press reports that sentiment among those who have departed runs deep. "Several people who have exited the D.O.J. told me that any lawyer of integrity who can afford to stop working there should do so," he wrote. "'Can you work for justice in an unjust department?' one asked, adding that his 'reservoir of grace' for those who remained had 'run dry.'"

The article recounts the case of Alexander Kristofcak, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of New York's Southern District. In March 2025, Kristofcak posted on LinkedIn a copy of a letter that Ed Martin, whom Trump had appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent to the dean of Georgetown Law School. Martin threatened that his office would refuse to hire Georgetown students and graduates unless the university ended its diversity-equity-and-inclusion programs. Kristofcak called the letter "a grotesque abuse of power" and "an astonishing admission of viewpoint discrimination." The D.C. Bar has since opened disciplinary proceedings against Martin, putting a formal accountability process into motion.

Kristofcak's post drew many private notes of thanks, but on March 7, 2025 — the same day a federal marshal came to Celia Cohen's office — he received letter from Todd Blanche informing him that he had been placed on leave. By then, Kristofcak had already decided to quit, because the administration's conduct reminded him of the oppression imposed in Czechoslovakia, where he was born.

Press also tells the story of Matthew Evans, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, who objected to the decision to charge an ICE officer who shot an unarmed immigrant through his front door only with making false statements. "The next day, he was fired," Press reported. "In a chilling development, Evans is now under criminal investigation for allegedly leaking details of the case. If charged and convicted, he could be jailed or disbarred." For career attorneys weighing whether to voice concerns from within, the episode lays bare the personal stakes: loss of employment, criminal exposure, and a career at risk.

Press concludes that these developments augur poorly for the future of the Justice Department. "Even after Trump is gone, it is by no means clear that young lawyers will want to pursue careers as federal prosecutors," he wrote. "Who can assure these attorneys that, in some future Administration, they won't be told to disregard court orders? Or that a loyalist won't be appointed to run their office and then fire all their supervisors?"

Several threads remain open as the department absorbs the departures: the disciplinary proceedings against Martin, the criminal investigation of Evans, and the unresolved question Press raises of who will choose to fill federal legal roles in the years ahead.

Dena Robinson told Press that if she were graduating from law school today, she would not set her sights on joining the Civil Rights Division. "I would be scared," she said. According to Press, that fear is especially warranted for Black women, who have been pushed out of government jobs in outsized numbers during Trump's second term.