The Biden-Harris administration has utilized a lesser-known hiring process to fill important roles within the Department of Justice (DOJ) in preparation for the 2024 election, as per documents obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT).
According to the documents shared by PPT, hundreds of individuals, predominantly lawyers and judges, have been selected for positions in the Environmental and Natural Resources (ENRD) and Antitrust and Immigration Review divisions of the DOJ through its “Schedule A” hiring authority since President Joe Biden assumed office.
Unlike traditional merit-based appointments, Schedule A hiring does not require such criteria, and these appointments are not subject to expiration at the end of the current president’s term, as outlined by the Office of Budget and Management.
This means that these bureaucrats will remain in their roles even if former President Donald Trump were to take office in 2025.
The hiring process is designed to support individuals with “intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities,” while also serving as a mechanism for filling specialized roles such as chaplains, scientists, and attorneys, or addressing urgent hiring demands as per federal regulations.
“The Biden-Harris administration and its allies have already signaled their intent to hamstring their successor and prevent a future president from reversing their agenda,” PPT director Michael Chamberlain said in an advance copy of a press release shared with the DCNF. “Exploiting non-competitive hiring authorities to fill career civil service positions could be just another component of this scheme. It’s no wonder that the public’s trust in its government has all but disappeared.”
The Department of Justice utilized Schedule A to recruit more than 100 immigration judges for its Immigration Review division, as per official documents.
These judges are tasked with determining the fate of noncitizens in the United States, deciding whether they can stay or must leave the country.
By the conclusion of the 2020 fiscal year, just as President Biden assumed office, immigration courts were grappling with a backlog of approximately 1.3 million cases, as reported by the DOJ.
However, this number skyrocketed to 3 million during the Biden-Harris administration, according to PBS’s January report.
“The administration is also using Schedule A to install immigration judges — again, outside of the normal merit-based system — who will rule on cases of those in a position to benefit from the administration’s immigration policies,” PPT’s press release reads.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) employed Schedule A to recruit a large number of trial attorneys for its ENRD division, tasked with upholding environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The division emphasizes climate change, environmental justice, and advocacy for Native American tribes, as stated on its website.
“The ENRD is a vital office in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s energy and climate policies, and the placement of Biden-Harris loyalists is a means to defend those policies even if a future Trump (or other) administration seeks to change them,” according to PPT.
According to the documents, the Department of Justice (DOJ) utilized Schedule A to strengthen its antitrust division by adding a significant number of trial attorneys.
Lina Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has taken a proactive approach to antitrust enforcement and has pursued legal action against companies such as Amazon, Meta, Kroger, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
“Until recently, antitrust enforcement was a relatively technical and non-partisan division,” PPT’s press release reads. “But the Biden-Harris administration’s increasingly aggressive implementation has sparked complaints of politicized enforcement.”
The DOJ appointments are described as a key part of a broader strategy to protect the federal government from potential influence by the Trump administration before the upcoming election in November.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, a new federal rule has been proposed to make it tougher for the president to dismiss career officials.
Additionally, employees at the Environmental Protection Agency have agreed to a contract that provides protection from dismissal as long as their work is conducted with scientific integrity.
Numerous left-leaning civil society organizations are swiftly preparing legal challenges to counter potential actions by a second Trump administration.
Meanwhile, both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division have rejected records requests from PPT.
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