Connecticut residents who were among former Department of Justice employees demanding the resignation of U.S. Attorney General William Barr say morale has waned at the federal agency.

The Connecticut signatories were among more than 2,000 ex-Justice Department employees who signed a letter demanding Barr's ouster over the sentencing of Roger Stone, a political consultant who worked on President Donald Trump's election campaign. They left the DOJ before Barr headed the agency, but have maintained contact with former colleagues.

"I'd say the mood there is really low," said Asha Rangappa, a senior lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former FBI special agent who served in the Justice Department from 2002 to 2005. "It's very disheartening. I think there is probably some soul-searching on whether or not they should themselves resign, or whether it's better to stay."

|

Related story—'Amazingly Courageous': What Lawyers Are Saying About the Stone Prosecutors Who Quit

Rangappa, now a CNN commentator, was among the letter's thousands of signatories, including several attorneys and former prosecutors.

"I don't recall, in my lifetime, there being this much of a groundswell of a movement for an attorney general to resign," she said.

No one from the U.S. Department of Justice's office of public affairs responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

|

'Sigh deeply'

Kristan Peters-Hamlin, a Connecticut-based solo practitioner and former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 1996, also signed the letter.

"Many DOJ people are concerned about  serving under an attorney general who appears to confuse his role with that of personal attorney to the president,"  Peters-Hamlin said. "In my discussions with them about the current situation, some will roll their eyes and sigh deeply. Many are horrified that Donald Trump does not have sufficient respect for the rule of law and that the attorney general is not showing more neutrality and independence."

That perception might have changed, though, as a rift appeared between the president and the attorney general. On Feb. 13, Barr sat for an interview with ABC News in which he said Trump's tweets made it impossible for the attorney general to do his job.

Trump tweeted several times about the Stone case. He suggested he thought a nine-year prison sentence was too harsh for Stone, who'd been convicted of witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress during special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!" Trump tweeted at 1:48 a.m. on Feb. 11.

After the president's tweet the Justice Department changed direction on the Stone case. Prosecutors, who had asked the court to impose the maximum sentence, submitted a new brief saying that punishment would have been too severe.

Critics who signed the letter said they did so because of what they saw as the president's interference.

And four federal prosecutors quit the Stone case.

Meanwhile, Barr appeared to have high-ranking  supporters, despite calls for his resignation.

The Hill website reported that top U.S. House and Senate Republicans, in a show of support for the embattled attorney general, issued a statement praising Barr as a "man of the highest character and unquestionable integrity."

|

'Not about Democrats and Republicans'

But thousands of former federal staffers disagree.

Among them: Felice Duffy, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the DOJ in Connecticut from 2005 to 2015. Like the other Connecticut signatories, she said the move took a lot of soul-searching.

"It was not an easy letter to sign," said Duffy, now a New Haven solo practitioner. "I signed the letter to show support for those four federal prosecutors who were doing what they believed in, and were trained to do by the Department of Justice—and that is to stand up, and treat everyone equally under the law."

Rangappa agreed, and said fellow attorneys, even those with no DOJ ties, should care about what is taking place in Washington, D.C.

"The legal profession is one in which principle matters more than politics and ideology," she said. "I think the principle of law is at stake here. The attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer in the country, and he should embody ideals in how he dispenses justice. But right now, the principle is being trampled on."

All three former employees say Justice Department employees are not political. They say many staffer have worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations.

"It's not about Democrats and Republicans," Rangappa said. "It never entered the conversations at the water cooler or anywhere else."

Read more: