中期选举后政府出现一定程度的人事变动属于常态，尤其是当总统所属政党遭遇上周那种惨败时。但不同寻常的是，自中期选举以来，已有多名高级官员离开司法部。随着他们的离去，一个本已举步维艰的部门将发现自己更深地处于白宫的影响之下，同时在满足唐纳德·特朗普总统要求方面将面临更大压力。
It’s normal for administrations to see some turnover after a midterm election, especially if the president’s party takes the kind of beating we saw last week. What’s unusual, though, is the number of high-ranking officials who’ve already left the Department of Justice since the midterms. With their departures, an already struggling department will find itself even further under the White House’s influence, even as it becomes more hard-pressed to meet President Donald Trump’s demands.
过去一周，该部门七个处理诉讼的分部中，已有三位分部负责人离职。司法部长托德·布兰奇周四宣布，国家安全分部负责人约翰·艾森伯格已辞职。他留给该分部的任务包括：扩大针对左翼人士的国内恐怖主义调查、骚扰记者以追查泄密来源，以及利用一个秘密法庭驱逐被指控从事恐怖主义活动的非公民。
Over the past week, the heads of three of the department’s seven divisions that handle litigation have taken their leave. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday that John Eisenberg, the head of the National Security Division, had stepped down. He leaves on the division’s plate a mandate to expand domestic terrorism investigations against leftists, harass journalists for the sources of leaks and efforts to use a secretive court to deport noncitizens accused of terrorism.
同一天，布兰奇还宣布民权分部负责人哈米特·迪隆辞职。据 MS NOW 报道，迪隆因未获晋升而感到沮丧，尽管她已成功扭转了该分部历史上保护少数族裔权利的角色定位。
The same day, Blanche also announced the resignation of Harmeet Dhillon as leader of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. According to MS NOW, Dhillon was frustrated at not getting promoted despite having successfully flipped the script on the division’s historic role protecting minority rights.
民事分部负责人布雷特·舒马特周一收拾行囊离职，留下该办公室独自应对源源不断、挑战政府政策的诉讼浪潮。
And Civil Division head Brett Shumate packed his bags Monday, abandoning an office charged with defending the government against a nonstop deluge of lawsuits challenging the administration’s policies.
截至目前，这三名高级幕僚中，只有迪隆已被临时人选取代：克雷格·特雷纳，此前担任住房和城市发展部公平住房与平等机会助理部长。鉴于他显然支持特朗普政府对该部门职责的颠倒认知，他似乎是迪隆的合乎逻辑的继任者。但特雷纳必须从住建部调任这一事实，凸显了司法部人手短缺的程度，鲜有参议院确认的任命者可填补空缺。
As of now, Dhillon is the only top staffer of the three who’s already been replaced by a temp: Craig Trainor, previously the assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Given his apparent support for the Trump administration’s inverted view of the division’s responsibilities, he seems like a logical follow-up to Dhillon. But the fact that Trainor had to be brought over from HUD underscores how shorthanded the Justice Department has become, with few Senate-confirmed appointees to fill in the empty slots.
事实上，截至周三，国家安全司网站上列出的所有副助理司法部长（除一人外）均标注为“代理”职务。与此同时，反垄断司、欺诈司以及环境与自然资源司均因其职权与本届政府优先事项冲突而遭到削弱。环境与自然资源司领导层页面仅列出一名负责人：一名首席副助理司法部长，甚至未被任命为代理负责人。反垄断司领导层页面在“领导层”栏下无人，甚至没有副手，其最近一份新闻稿（6月发布）署名为该司本身。
In fact, all but one of the deputy assistant attorneys general in the National Security Division were listed on the DOJ website Wednesday as “acting” in their roles. Meanwhile, the Antitrust, Fraud, and Environment and Natural Resources divisions have all been undercut as their mandates clash with this administration’s priorities. The ERND leadership page lists just one leader: a principal deputy assistant attorney general who hasn’t even been named acting head. The Antitrust Division’s page lists nobody under “Leadership,” not even deputies, and its most recent press release — from June — was issued as coming from the division itself.
目前仍在任的最具影响力的助理司法部长是泰森·杜瓦，他领导司法部刑事司。然而，正如彭博法律去年他在被任命时所言，杜瓦获得此职并非因其丰富经验。他此前是佛罗里达州一名“小办公室检察官”，但关键在于他与前白幕僚长苏西·怀尔斯关系密切。她的辞职对杜瓦职位稳固性的影响尚待观察，但现有的大量空缺使得他被替换的可能性略微降低。
The most influential assistant attorney general still standing is Tysen Duva, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. As Bloomberg Law put it when he was tapped last year, however, Duva did not get this assignment because of his vast experience. He was formerly a “small-office prosecutor” in Florida but crucially was close with former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Whatever impact her resignation has on Duva’s job security remains to be seen, but the number of vacancies already in place makes the odds of him being replaced slightly lower.
不利的一面是，司法部的法律火力将更加薄弱，而与此同时，国会中的民主党人正在扩充人手，并寻求招募顶尖法律人才。即将成为多数党的民主党将在众议院和参议院都拥有传票权，可调查的靶子多得不胜枚举。
The upside is that the Justice Department will have even less legal firepower, even as Democrats in Congress staff up and look to recruit top legal talent. The incoming majority will have subpoena power in both the House and Senate with an embarrassment of rich targets for investigation.
即将到来的风暴让布兰奇及其部门与白宫绑得更紧。司法部长周日早上做客CNN的《国情咨文》节目，为特朗普荒谬的说法背书，即国会调查可能在某种程度上构成犯罪。白宫法律顾问威尔·沙夫随后于周一致信国会，同样声称民主党的调查“可能越界，构成公然犯罪”。三人均未说明这种情况可能如何发生、为何发生。
The oncoming storm leaves Blanche and his department even more tightly tethered to the White House. The attorney general appeared Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” to back up Trump’s inane claim that congressional investigations might in some way be criminal. White House counsel Will Scharf followed that up with a letter to Congress on Monday, also claiming that Democrats’ probes “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”None of the three gave any indication of how or why that might be the case.
新上任的白宫幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒大概不在乎司法部的威胁是否有道理。过去两年司法部在法庭上最惨重的几次失利，大多是在为米勒的反移民举措辩护。他似乎同样不惜突破界限，迫使律师在法庭上为侵犯移民权利的行为辩护。而且据报道，米勒认为舒马特在担任民事司司长期间，在法庭上庇护政府不够强硬，因此任何接任者都必须愿意为不可辩护之事辩护，无论这对自己声誉造成多大代价。
Newly installed White House chief of staff Stephen Miller likely doesn’t care if there’s merit to the Justice Department’s threats. Many of the toughest losses the DOJ has had in court over the past two years have been defending Miller’s anti-immigrant initiatives. He seems no less willing to push the boundaries and force lawyers to defend immigration rights violations in court. And given Miller’s reported belief that Shumate, while head of the Civil Division, wasn’t aggressive enough in shielding the administration in court, any replacement will have to be willing to defend the indefensible no matter the cost to their own reputation.
MAGA 阵营可用的法律资源浅薄且日益枯竭，这意味着布兰奇和司法部将比以往任何时候都更依赖白宫的支持。这使得米勒实际上在为司法部和国土安全部制定政策，进一步将权力集中在白宫手中。由于已无人留下来实际开展捍卫和执行这些政策的工作，特朗普拆除白宫与司法部之间防火墙的做法，看起来每天都更像是一个失误。
The shallow and dwindling pool of legal resources available to the MAGA world broadly means Blanche and the DOJ will find themselves more dependent than ever on the White House’s support. This leaves Miller essentially determining policy for both the Justice and Homeland Security departments, further consolidating power within the White House. Without anyone left to actually do the work of defending and enforcing these policies, Trump’s destruction of the firewall between the White House and the Justice Department is looking more like a misstep each day.