One career Department of Justice (DOJ) employee who ran an internal advocacy group that pushed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies left her position to fight President Donald Trump’s reforms from the outside.
Stacey Young, founder of the DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN), launched a group called Justice Connection to offer legal support to employees impacted by efforts to cut the workforce as part of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s promise to end the “weaponization” of the agency that took place under the Biden administration.
Prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team to prosecute Trump have already been fired. One of Bondi’s first actions as attorney general was establishing a Weaponization Working Group, which, along with looking into prosecutors who brought cases against Trump, will examine an FBI memo suggesting traditionalist Catholic practices could be affiliated with extremism and the prosecution of pro-life activists under the FACE Act.
“Department employees are terrified and many don’t yet know where to turn,” Young told House Judiciary Committee Democrats in a Jan. 31 statement. “They need expert and accessible support from people they know and already trust—and they need it now.”
Young, who worked for the DOJ for 18 years, noted that “a growing list of senior career officials in the Criminal, National Security, Civil Rights, Civil, and Environment and Natural Resources Divisions; in the Executive Office for Immigration Review; and in the FBI” have been terminated over the past weeks.
On her way out, Young shut down DOJ GEN, a group she founded in 2016. The group’s website now states it is “no longer an active organization.”
DOJ GEN has pushed for coverage of abortion in healthcare plans, urged the attorney general to prioritize diversity in leadership and opposed Trump’s executive order in 2020 restricting diversity training in federal agencies.
Young’s new group is sponsored by the Government Accountability Project, which describes itself as “the leading international whistleblower protection organization.” The group has received funding from the George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society and liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund.
The Government Accountability Project and DOJ GEN did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
