Former Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Justice and former General Counsel to the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Mizelle, announced on Saturday on social media: “If you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda, DM me. We need good prosecutors. And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.”
Mizelle’s post drew criticism on social media, with a representative example reading: “thought AUSA’s were supposed to be non-partisan… But now being a Trump supporter is a requirement for hiring?”
Conservative National Review columnist and Republican former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Andy McCarthy, also responded: “If support for incumbent the president is now a condition of enforcing federal law, Congress should defund DOJ. DOJ should only exist if it’s nonpartisan. Too dangerous to liberty otherwise. If AG Garland’s office had posted this, MAGA & GOP would be calling for impeachment.”
Note: Known to criticize both political parties, McCarthy is the author of the 2010 book, How the Obama Administration has Politicized Justice.
If support for incumbent the president is now a condition of enforcing federal law, Congress should defund DOJ. DOJ should only exist if it’s nonpartisan. Too dangerous to liberty otherwise. If AG Garland’s office had posted this, MAGA & GOP would be calling for impeachment. https://t.co/Morz51deor
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) January 31, 2026
U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), an attorney, also replied: “Dear @chad_mizelle: Before someone can become an Assistant U.S. Attorney, that person takes an oath to the Constitution of the United States. That person does not take an oath to Donald Trump. Make sure you know the [expletive] difference.”
Conservative Ed Whelan — former deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration — also replied to Mizelle: “It would be good to know if DOJ is taking the position that support for the president is a lawful criterion in hiring AUSAs.”
After Mizelle resigned from the DOJ in October, according to Bloomberg, he continued “to criticize ‘Democrat-appointed’ federal trial judges who’ve ruled against the Trump administration in nationwide decisions and suggested change will require Congress to impeach judges.”
In December, Mizelle — who is married to Trump-appointed U.S. district judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle — accepted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s invitation to join the University of South Florida’s Board of Trustees.
Note: When Judge Mizelle was nominated for the lifetime appointment in 2020, the American Bar Association (ABA) rated Mizelle “Not Qualified” to serve as a federal trial court judge. (The ABA committee noted that Mizelle had less than the standard 12 years of experience and “since her admission to the bar Ms. Mizelle has not tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel.”)
Last month, Governor DeSantis announced that Florida is ending the ABA’s role “as the exclusive accreditor for law schools in the state,” as he believes the organization is a “partisan” entity promoting a “progressive agenda.”