Corey Amundson, the U.S. Justice Department's senior career official in charge of overseeing public corruption and other politically sensitive investigations, resigned on Monday after the Trump administration tried to reassign him to a new role working on immigration issues, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
"I am honored and blessed to have served our country and this department for the last 23 years," Amundson wrote in his letter to Acting Attorney General James McHenry.
"I spent my entire professional life committed to the apolitical enforcement of the federal criminal law and to ensuring that those around me understood and embraced that central tenet of our work," Amundson said.
Amundson is one of an estimated 20 career officials inside the Justice Department who was reassigned last week to a new Sanctuary City Working Group inside the Associate Attorney General's office.
At least two of those officials, Amundson and George Toscas from the National Security Division, had some involvement in the two criminal investigations against President Donald Trump over his retention of classified records and his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Others who were reassigned include seasoned attorneys who work in the Criminal, Civil Rights, National Security, and Environment and Natural Resources divisions as well as the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Current and former officials have told Reuters that the reassignments of senior career lawyers who usually stay in their posts no matter which party controls the White House are highly unusual.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two now-dismissed criminal cases against Trump, wrote in his final report that his office "consulted regularly" with the public integrity section, a requirement under Justice Department rules.
Smith's prosecutors sought advice from the section on a range of issues including the use of certain charges and the timing of a revised indictment in August accusing Trump of attempting to subvert his 2020 election defeat.
Amundson was installed as the head of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section during Trump's first term when Attorney General William Barr was at the helm of the department.
Barr resisted pressure from Trump to investigate false claims of election fraud - another type of probe that is handled by the Public Integrity Section.
Barr has since fallen out of favor with Trump, and Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, included Barr's name on a list of members of the so-called "deep state" in his book "Government Gangsters."
Amundson's resignation letter did not make reference to his section's role in the Trump cases.
However, it cited a number of other high-profile cases he helped oversee including the public corruption cases against Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar, former Republican Congressman George Santos and Fugees hip hop group member Prakazrel "Pras" Michel.
"Corey's track record of service at the department is exemplary," a former senior Justice Department official told Reuters. "He deserved to be treated better than this."
