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NEWS DECEMBER 28, 2020 ¦ 19

DOJ Staff Request Federal Investigations
Over Trump’s Diversity and Inclusion Order

By Jacqueline Thomsen

U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. Jan. 10, 2012.

Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

Department of Justice employees are alleg- The National Law Journal has reached out to a
ing political leaders violated federal law Justice Department spokesperson for comment.
and abused their authority in implementing Trump signed the order blocking the programs
President Donald Trump’s executive order against earlier this year. Since then, officials at DOJ’s
diversity and inclusion training, and are calling for Justice Management Division—which handles
federal investigations into the matter. administrative and management matters for the
In a whistleblower letter, sent Tuesday to the department—have issued guidance requiring
DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, the Office of the cancellation of programs, activities and oth-
Special Counsel and Congress by the Government er events on diversity and inclusion held during
Accountability Project, the employees allege “re- work hours. That appears to go beyond the scope
cent acts constituting violations of law, abuse of of the president’s order, which focuses on training.
authority, gross mismanagement and gross waste Other federal agencies, like the State Department,
of funds by executive branch political leadership reportedly have not adopted such a broad inter-
in ending long-standing federal diversity and in- pretation of the executive action.
clusion programs.” The employees state they are In Tuesday’s letter, the DOJ employees say that
members of DOJ affinity and employee resource “federal agency guidance and implementation has
groups who want to stay anonymous.
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