A former top Justice Department official said his social media call encouraging lawyers who "support President Trump" to apply for federal prosecutor jobs drew a big response.
Chad Mizelle, who was US Attorney General Pam Bondi's chief of staff until late 2025, told Bloomberg News through a spokesperson that he received nearly a thousand resumes for assistant US attorney jobs via the post. He said the applications were forwarded to the Justice Department, which will be conducting interviews "soon."
A spokesperson for the Justice Department didn't respond to a request for comment.
Mizelle's Jan. 31 post on X drew widespread criticism, with many taking issue with his suggestion that traditionally non-partisan federal prosecutors should support President Donald Trump. Others said the appeal indicated that the Justice Department was having trouble filling what were once highly prestigious positions.
"The fact that you got to post on X begging for people to apply, tells you how far the mighty have fallen," said Melba Pearson, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor.
Mizelle denied that his candidates were less qualified. "Many individuals who reached out to me graduated from some of the top law schools in the country," he said in responses to Bloomberg's questions about his efforts that were shared by his spokesperson. He declined to provide examples.
His post followed a wave of resignations from the US attorney's office in Minneapolis over the Trump administration's controversial immigration enforcement "surge" in the city. He told Bloomberg that re-staffing the Minneapolis office would be a priority.
Other federal prosecutors' offices have also seen a spike in firings and departures, often over staffers' unwillingness or inability to carry out Trump's orders. Nearly 1,700 personnel left US Attorney's offices in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the US Office of Personnel Management, which only publishes data from the last 10 years. The second-largest drop was in 2017, when 190 staffers left.
Trump has tried to install his personal lawyers, some with no prior prosecutorial experience, as US attorneys. Two of them, Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan, resigned after courts ruled they were illegally appointed.
The Justice Department has pulled in immigration and military attorneys to fill depleted prosecutor ranks, according to Bloomberg Law. In Washington, a lawyer-turned-dance-photographer led efforts to indict six Democratic members of congress over a video stating that military personnel can disobey illegal orders. A grand jury rejected the charges.
Kaycee Nail, a spokesperson for the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, a group representing federal prosecutors, said the current administration's approach was having an affect on Justice Department lawyers.
"People are feeling discouraged and are feeling a sense of low morale just based on what we're seeing in the news even a lot of prosecutors that aren't directly impacted by political firings," she said.
"No one is entitled to work at DOJ," Mizelle wrote in a Thursday X post addressing his recruitment pitch. "You must be willing to put aside personal agendas and vendettas to advance the president's priorities and serve the American people."
He also suggested Thursday that more prosecutors may be recruited via social media. "My main takeaway? There's no where better to find top talent across the country than X," he wrote.