The U.S. Justice Department's leadership plans to force out more of the nation's chief federal prosecutors and has told those who remain to prepare for a "wartime footing" after the Republican Party's midterm election losses, according to Bloomberg Law, which cited three people briefed on a call held on Monday, November 9.

Source: Bloomberg Law

On the call — the first meeting of the department's field-office leaders since voters rejected the Trump administration's agenda in the November 3 midterms — Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh advised U.S. attorneys and their first assistants to consider resigning if they are not prepared for "full-on battle" and to obey the administration's orders. Singh previewed that more U.S. attorneys will be pushed out imminently, the people briefed said. He did not name who would go next, but cautioned that some prosecutors may want to talk to their families and leave voluntarily before it is no longer their choice.

MS NOW separately reported the same call, citing two people with knowledge of it, and said Singh described the department as being on a "wartime footing" for the last two years of President Donald Trump's term.

Source: MS NOW via Raw Story

What prosecutors were ordered to prioritise

Singh renewed standing directives for U.S. attorneys to focus their resources on fraud against taxpayer funds and on violent crime, Bloomberg Law reported. Matters that do not fit those two categories must be deprioritised, investigations that have been open for two years or longer must be closed, and each of the 93 U.S. attorney offices must again designate two or three assistant U.S. attorneys who can be moved quickly to high-priority cases in other districts.

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels told Bloomberg Law the "wartime" reference was about public safety, pointing to newly elected state and local leaders who, she said, are no longer interested in partnering with federal law enforcement. "U.S. Attorneys were reminded to be ready to protect their communities from those breaking federal law," Pels said.

A week of departures came first

The warning landed after a run of senior exits that this newsroom has reported as they happened: Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon resigned on Thursday, November 5; South Florida U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones and National Security Division head John Eisenberg resigned on Friday, November 6; and Civil Division head Brett Shumate resigned on Monday, November 9, according to Attorney General Todd Blanche's announcements and reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters. Bloomberg Law reported that some of the departures were not voluntary. Quiñones's Miami district had overseen a stalled "grand conspiracy" investigation of Trump's adversaries and had reportedly frustrated department leaders with its lack of progress.

Blanche has said there is nothing unusual about officials leaving after a midterm, and Pels dismissed anonymously sourced reporting on departing appointees as "click-bait." Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley characterised Singh's message as a motivational address about staying focused on the administration's priorities. Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who served in Trump's first term, warned that with fewer Senate-confirmed leaders and experienced career lawyers leaving, the department may struggle to keep up with heavy workloads — "and they're going to make mistakes."

Why immigration cases feel the squeeze first

U.S. attorneys' offices are also the government's front line in immigration court fights: they defend Immigration and Customs Enforcement when detained immigrants file habeas petitions in federal court, and several offices have said publicly that they cannot keep up. In the Western District of Washington, Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd wrote to the court on October 26 that his office "does not have the available resources" to appear in every one of the dozens of immigration habeas petitions filed each week; a Seattle judge has since freed a detainee whose petition went unopposed. In Colorado, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed that detainees must be released if the government does not answer within seven days. Earlier this year, the U.S. attorneys covering Texas told the Fifth Circuit that the flood of detention litigation had forced them to divert prosecutors from other work, Bloomberg Law reported.

The public-safety explanation also points at the post-election fight over immigration cooperation. Within days of the vote, Houston Mayor John Whitmire ordered police to stop calling ICE about many nonviolent stops, Austin began rewriting its ICE contact rules ahead of Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa taking office, and Washington, D.C. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George said she wants to end the police department's cooperation with ICE. In November 2025, Bloomberg Law reported, Singh had ordered U.S. attorneys' offices to report their progress on the president's executive order directing the department to list sanctuary jurisdictions and pursue legal action against them. A Rhode Island judge this month permanently barred the department from tying federal Byrne JAG grants to immigration cooperation in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

What happens next

The immediate question is which U.S. attorneys leave next, and whether any of them run districts carrying heavy immigration habeas dockets. Bloomberg Law reported it is not yet clear who would replace purged prosecutors: some Trump-appointed department staff are already searching for new jobs, and some recent recruits rescinded their job acceptances after the midterms. In January, Democrats take control of Congress and department leaders expect a wave of investigations and subpoenas of the department's conduct — the fight Singh's "wartime footing" language appears designed to prepare for. For now, Bloomberg Law reported, U.S. attorneys' offices plan to keep their current approach, and no new enforcement memos have been sent to the field.