WASHINGTON, March 13–A Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower has disclosed to Congress how the Trump Administration illegally gutted the Department’s Community Relations Service (CRS) office.
Julius Nam, a WhistleblowerAid.org client, former federal prosecutor, and former CRS Associate Director, came forward to Congress in an effort to correct and complete the record, and to ensure that the DOJ is transparent in its dealings with both the courts and the public.
Before the office was dismantled, Nam repeatedly warned senior Administration officials that reducing the office from more than 50 staff to a single employee would destroy it. As he warned, the impact of CRS’s dissolution has directly and concretely impacted communities nationwide.
Though it isn’t a household name, CRS was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to serve as a “peacemaker” in community civil rights conflicts. Its mission was expanded in 1996 under the Church Arson Prevention Act to counter and prevent hate crimes against religious communities. The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act further empowered CRS to address hate crimes based on gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and disability.
In a just-released letter, Congressman Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi address serious concerns raised in our client’s disclosure. Raskin further accused the DOJ under Bondi of potentially misleading a federal court by failing to acknowledge and share warnings that gutting the agency would be difficult, dangerous, and illegal.
Whistleblower Aid Special Counsel and Senior Vice President David Kligerman said the maneuvers described in the disclosure “reveal once again the extent to which Administration officials continue to get caught violating the law. Here they did so both in dismantling this critical DOJ function and then subverting the judicial process by withholding or manipulating key evidence from the court–all in an effort to hide their own misconduct.”
Until its dissolution, CRS provided critical assistance in resolving and preventing community conflicts, violence, and civil disorder related to issues of racial, ethnic, and national origin. It also helped communities struggling to recover in the aftermath of alleged violent hate crimes. To fulfill its mandate, CRS must maintain sufficient connections with and presence in communities throughout the country. Its personnel must be able to identify and assess conflicts as they arise, deploy swiftly to address them and restore peaceful relations, and operate safely and securely in contexts that often involve violence or threats of violence.
“This is of course an impossible task for a single person to accomplish,” Kligerman said. “And so our brave client spoke up.”
WhistleblowerAid.org provides pro bono legal, advocacy, and communications support to government and private sector whistleblowers acting in the public interest. The organization’s lawyers have represented some of the most consequential national security and Big Tech whistleblowers in history, including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the anonymous Intelligence Community whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump, and others.
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