Jay Bratt (Credit: cyber security summit)
A top Justice Department national security prosecutor has become an early casualty of the incoming Trump administration, abruptly resigning from the department last week before incoming appointees can retaliate against him for his key role in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president.
But three sources familiar with the move described it to SpyTalk as a significant and even chilling event previewing a potential exodus of seasoned government lawyers and FBI agents who fear the wrath of Pam Bondi, Trump ’s pick for attorney general, Kash Patel, his intended nominee for FBI Director, and their expected army of MAGA loyalists in line to fill out top posts.
“They’re forcing him out. There isn’t any doubt that, like [FBI Director Chris] Wray, he’s leaving to get ahead of the axe,” said one former Justice official who attended a farewell party for Bratt at the Justice Department’s seventh floor media center on Friday.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Bratt, 65—who served as a Justice lawyer for more than three decades—confirmed his departure, but declined to comment further. Bratt, who had achieved senior executive status within the department, has told friends and colleagues that he concluded it “wasn’t worth it” to stay at the department only to fight what he fully expected to be a “wrongful termination” notice from his new bosses at Justice, according to a source familiar with his conversations. (Read more: SpyTalk, 1/5/2024) (Archive)