The Department of Justice’s environmental enforcement section has roughly half the number of attorneys it had at the beginning of the year, and there are no stated plans to fill the vacancies, according to the section’s former chief.
Tom Mariani, who recently left his post as the Environmental and Natural Resources Division’s environmental enforcement section after nearly four decades at DOJ, said he estimates 65 to 70 attorneys currently remain, down from approximately 120 to 125 attorneys in February.
“That’s a big cut, and it’s going to make a difference,” Mariani said during an American Bar Association conference last week.
The losses are mainly due to division transfers and voluntary departures, either from the Trump administration’s early retirement or deferred resignation programs, he said. Agencies like EPA that rely on DOJ’s environmental division to bring their enforcement cases to court will feel the effects.
