Bounty Hunters

The Department of Justice has a major problem: they can't find enough lawyers to do their dirty work. It’s gotten so bad that they’ve resorted to massive hiring bonuses just to get bodies in the door. It makes you wonder... is the DOJ the new "last resort" for legal careers?

DOJ Offers Lawyers $25,000 Signing Bonuses as Hiring Lags (2)

Bloomberg Law

Ben Penn

May 5, 2026

The Justice Department is taking a new tack to overcome hurdles in attracting qualified legal talent and to prevent current lawyers from leaving: offering signing and retention bonuses throughout the Civil Division.

New vacancy postings show signing bonuses of $25,000 are newly available to staff offices investigating youth transgender treatments and litigating the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

Further, the head of the Civil Division—which plays a crucial role advancing and protecting the president’s policies in court—informed all his attorneys Monday that they’ll begin receiving a “retention incentive allowance” ranging from around $60 to $220 every pay period through Thanksgiving, according to an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

Do they feel that it is not a good step in career development?

The financial enticements are an apparent first for a department that in previous years would be inundated with resumes from lawyers willing to take significant salary reductions compared to private sector legal practice. Padding lawyers’ biweekly paychecks signals a division growing more desperate to stave off further departures of valuable legal minds, including those who’ve expressed discomfort with defending the president’s policies from a slew of lawsuits.

I guess they don't think that it will look good on their resumes to have prosecuted trans people for terrorism. It might look good to far-right law firms, but not in general law. But look who they are recruiting: college graduates with no experience! The ABA Journal reports:

The bonuses come as the department in March revoked its long-standing requirement that newly hired prosecutors have at least one year of experience practicing law. The Civil Division vacancies similarly state that new hires must have “up to one” year of legal experience, although there are openings at higher grade levels requiring more legal experience, according to Bloomberg Law.

And you wonder why judges are throwing DOJ lawyers out of their courtrooms! When you have inexperienced lawyers, these things happen. According to The New Republic, Judge Melissa DuBose discovered that DOJ lawyers—acting on instructions from DHS—had withheld information about a defendant’s outstanding murder warrant during a bail hearing.

Journalists say unprecedented FBI raid on reporter’s home will have ‘widespread ramifications’

Journalists say the raid is already impacting their ability to get important stories to the public.

Reporter's Committee

May 3, 2026

More than three months after the FBI took the unprecedented step of raiding a Washington Post reporter’s home in connection with a national security leak investigation, journalists say the search has had serious consequences — for reporters and their sources, and for the public that relies on them to hold the government accountable. 

The Jan. 14 raid on the home of reporter Hannah Natanson sent a shockwave through the journalism industry. In its immediate aftermath, journalists expressed alarm that federal agents not only searched Natanson’s home but also seized the reporter’s phone, laptops, and other electronic devices, capturing years of her newsgathering materials and communications with confidential sources. Journalists have since had several months to assess the raid’s fallout.

[...]

The journalists we interviewed almost universally expressed shock, but not necessarily surprise, about the search, with some emphasizing that it was an inevitable next step in what they see as the Trump administration’s broader anti-press agenda.

The DOJ knew what they were doing: creating fear in reporters and their sources!

The collective chilling effect — both on sources and reporters — spells grave danger for a free press in the United States, journalists told us. The impact of the raid, some said, will have “widespread ramifications” across the country, affecting not just national security reporters covering, for instance, the war in Iran but also local reporters covering small-town police departments. 

Above the Law has a different take on this:

The Department of Justice has a major problem: they can't find enough lawyers to do their dirty work. It’s gotten so bad that they’ve resorted to massive hiring bonuses just to get bodies in the door. It makes you wonder—is the DOJ the new "last resort" for legal careers?

[...]

It’s a problem that stretches to every corner of the DOJ. The Solicitor General’s office has hemorrhaged at least half of its career attorneys. The Civil Rights Division has shed more than 60 percent of its workforce since January 2025. U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country are cracking under the strain of cleaning up after DHS and an immigration enforcement regime that treats federal court orders as mere suggestions. Career lawyers have resigned in organized waves rather than pad their portfolio for what should be the inevitable disciplinary proceedings.

Everything has its price. The DOJ is hoping “lying to courts” and “open contempt” is worth about $25K.

It is all part of the Trump administration's plan to control the media! It is being seen as the politicization and disorganization of the Justice Department by the Trump administration.