Politics

DOJ Lawyer Posts Anti-Trump Screed, Quits Job

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Kevin Daley Supreme Court correspondent
Font Size:

A senior corporate crimes lawyer at the Department of Justice has left government service given her strong opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency, and has continued to agitate against him at protests and in social media.

The International Business Times reports that Hui Chen joined the department as compliance counsel in DOJ’s fraud section in 2015, but left in May due to her hostility to the president. In this capacity, she advised federal prosecutors on corporate prosecutions and strategies for assessing corporate conformity to federal laws and regulations as part of non-prosecution agreements. She declined to renew her contract with DOJ, but spoke out against the president during and after her time at the Department.

Chen defended her decision to leave the Department on LinkedIn, asserting that her continued affiliation with DOJ would be “hypocritical” given the deluge of criminal allegations the president and his associates have faced, which she appears to believe in large part. She writes:

To sit across the table from companies and question how committed they were to ethics and compliance felt not only hypocritical, but very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic. Even as I engaged in those questioning and evaluations, on my mind were the numerous lawsuits pending against the President of the United States for everything from violations of the Constitution to conflict of interest, the ongoing investigations of potentially treasonous conducts, and the investigators and prosecutors fired for their pursuits of principles and facts.

Law.com reported on Chen’s social media activities when she was still contracted with DOJ. She regularly linked to stories about the president’s sprawling business empire and its attendant conflicts of interest, tweeted photos of anti-Trump slogans, and posted a picture of herself at a protest adorned in “resistance” gear as her Twitter banner photo.

Since ending her relationship with the department, she has compared Attorney General Jeff Session to Hitler.

Michael Gallion, a partner in the labor and employment practice at Kelley Drye & Warren, explained that Chen’s comments were not clearly unlawful or grounds for dismissal, but they are inappropriate to her position.

“[T]hese are really super-derogatory comments,” he told Law.com.

“This calls into question her judgment,” he added. “It’s inappropriate for someone in her position.”

Follow Kevin on Twitter

Send tips to kevin@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.