Jody Hunt Jody Hunt testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing March 7, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A top U.S. Justice Department official who oversaw the legal defense of Trump administration policies, along with the White House's broad refusal to respond to congressional oversight requests, plans to step down in early July.

In an email Tuesday to staff, Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said his resignation would take effect July 3, capping a more than two-decade career at the Justice Department spent largely in the division that handles civil litigation.

"It has been the greatest honor and privilege of my professional career to have served together with you (and many before you) for more than two decades," Hunt wrote in a message to the Justice Department's civil division, describing the group as "the greatest litigation force on earth."

A Justice Department spokesperson was not immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

Under Hunt's leadership, the Justice Department's civil division—the largest litigating component at Main Justice—defended the Trump administration in court cases concerning what House Democrats described as an "unprecedented" refusal to comply with congressional oversight requests. At court hearings over access to Trump administration records and officials, the Justice Department repeatedly asserted that courts should play no role resolving oversight disputes between the executive and legislative branches.

In other prominent cases, Hunt's division sought to fend off challenges in federal courts across the country to some of the Trump administration's most controversial policies, including the travel ban, and stepped in to shield the president himself against allegations that he was illegally profiting off of his business empire in violation of anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution.

Last year, in a span of five months, more than a half dozen lawyers left the civil division team tasked with defending administration policies in federal appeals courts—an unusual string of departures that former Justice Department officials saw as reflecting the strain of a caseload increasingly dominated by politically charged matters. Some former civil division lawyers have assailed various positions Main Justice has taken in big cases, including the Trump administration's refusal to defend the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.

The departures of senior DOJ leaders, particularly in the closing months of a presidential term, are not uncommon. Hunt is joining Solicitor General Noel Francisco and Brian Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, in making a summertime departure from the Trump administration. Francisco, a former Jones Day partner, is expected to step down following the Supreme Court term, according to two people familiar with his plans.

Benczkowski, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner who announced his decision to step down last week, said his resignation will take effect July 3.

Hunt revealed his plans to step down just hours after his name appeared on a lawsuit the Justice Department filed against John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, seeking to delay the publication of a tell-all book detailing his tenure in the White House. The Justice Department alleged that the book contains classified information, the public release of which could compromise national security. Bolton, represented by Cooper & Kirk's Charles Cooper, has disputed that assertion.

Hunt was briefly a partner at King & Spalding before joining the Justice Department in 1999. The firm is now home to Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy U.S. attorney general who oversaw the Russia investigation following then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal in 2017, and Sally Yates, who served as the Justice Department's second-in-command in the final years of the Obama administration. Hunt joined King & Spalding from White & Case, where he had been an associate.

Before his confirmation in 2018 as head of the Justice Department's civil division, Hunt served as Sessions' chief of staff. In that role, Hunt witnessed some of the most controversial—and colorful—moments scrutinized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III in the Russia investigation, including the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

Hunt would feature prominently in the more than 400-page report summarizing Mueller's findings. It was from Hunt's testimony and notes that the special counsel team learned that Trump, upon learning of Mueller's appointment in May 2017, slumped in his chair and exclaimed: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked."

 

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