Brett Shumate, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, resigned on Monday. He is the most recent of several Senate-confirmed DOJ leaders to depart in the wake of last week’s midterm elections, which saw the GOP suffer huge losses.
In a statement on X, Attorney General Todd Blanche said he accepted the departure: “Today I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Civil Division. Under his leadership, the Division pursued important affirmative litigation to challenge sanctuary policies and delivered key wins in lawsuits against local policies that endangered federal law enforcement. The Division also secured historic settlements to end illegal corporate DEI practices and shuttered dozens of clinics which were providing so-called ‘gender affirming care’ to minors. We are grateful for Brett’s service at DOJ and wish him continued success.”
Shumate, a former member of the Justice Department under Trump’s first term, ran a division that went after local governments uncooperative with the administration’s immigration hard line, as well as healthcare clinics for transgender minors and corporate diversity programs, according to Reuters. In court, he has also put up a defense for Trump’s move to strip citizenship from naturalized immigrants.
Last month, the department went after 40 naturalized Americans in what Blanche called the “largest denaturalization effort in modern history.”
“Every single one of these individuals lied their way into U.S. citizenship,” Shumate said, according to The New Republic.
Shumate also defended the administration’s push to give the U.S. Postal Service a role in overseeing mail-in ballots, NBC News reported. He likewise had a hand in the decision to let planes carrying alleged Tren de Aragua members land in El Salvador last year despite a judge’s order to the contrary.
The Civil Division, like others in the DOJ, has seen its ranks thin out since Trump’s reelection two years back, even in the unit tasked with defending the president’s policies in court. Lately, the division under Shumate has been offering signing bonuses as high as $25,000.
What prompted Shumate to resign remains unclear. He joins other senior officials who have moved on of late: Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division, John Eisenberg of National Security, and U.S. attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, who oversaw probes into past criminal investigations of Trump.
The exits come as Democrats prepare to take over Congress in January with plans to investigate Trump and his administration.