By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – 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 re-assign 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 re-assigned last week to a new Sanctuary City Working Group inside the Associate Attorney General’s office.
At least two of those officials, Amundson and national security attorney George Toscas, 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.
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.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Franklin Paul and Mark Porter)
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