DOJ pulls job offers for program that feeds environment section

By Pamela King | 01/23/2025 04:21 PM EST

The move is part of a broader hiring freeze invoked by President Donald Trump.

Justice Department headquarters.

Justice Department headquarters. Francis Chung/E&E News

The Department of Justice has revoked job offers through a prestigious program that helps staff the agency’s environment division.

In emails DOJ’s Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management sent to candidates Wednesday and obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, the department cited the hiring freeze imposed Monday by President Donald Trump as the reason for rescinding the offers, which were extended late last year.

The move throws into question the future of DOJ’s Attorney General’s Honors Program, which offers entry-level positions to the nation’s top law school graduates and has operated for decades through both Democratic and Republican administrations.

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The program routes participants to multiple offices across the department, including the Environment and Natural Resources Division, which, according to the program’s website, was slated to bring on an estimated 10 hires.

Todd Kim, ENRD’s most recent leader under former President Joe Biden, began his legal career as an honor’s program attorney for the division. He worked as an ENRD career lawyer through the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

ENRD candidates had been on track to select more specific assignments at a later date. Their options included the Environmental Crimes, Natural Resources and Indian Resources sections.

DOJ did not respond to requests for comment on the revoked offers.

Other agencies — including the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services and the IRS — also walked back job offers, according to A. Benjamin Spencer, dean of William & Mary Law School.

Students at his school had relied on their offers and declined other opportunities, he wrote in a LinkedIn post Wednesday.

“I would advise decision makers to consider honoring outstanding offers of federal employment and to limit the hiring freeze to the extension of new offers from the date of the executive order,” Spencer wrote.

He urged his network to contact him to help affected candidates find new employment.