A senior Department of Justice official resigned Monday after being notified of his reassignment to an enforcement initiative targeting sanctuary cities, according to multiple reports.
Corey Amundson wrote in a letter, obtained by multiple media outlets, including Bloomberg and The New York Times, that his resignation was effective immediately.
Amundson was one of a half-dozen DOJ prosecutors who were informed Friday that they were being reassigned. Amundson was in charge of overseeing the DOJ’s public integrity division and other politically sensitive investigations for 23 years.
“I spent my entire professional life committed to the apolitical enforcement of federal criminal law and to ensuring that those around me understood and embraced that central tenet of our work,” Amundson wrote to Acting Attorney General James McHenry, according to the outlets.
“I wish you and the Department’s leadership every success in the coming years as you work to pursue the President’s criminal enforcement agenda, including to protect all Americans from the scourge of violent crime and public corruption,” he wrote.
It's unclear why Amundson was reassigned. However, former special counsel Jack Smith said in a report that he consulted the public integrity division during his election interference investigation into President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported. NBC News reported that Amundson also had a hand in the classified documents case against Trump, also run by Smith.
The DOJ is expected to launch investigations into the legality of sanctuary cities, an assignment being called “Sanctuary Cities Environmental Working Group,” according to NBC News.
“Everyone they don’t like is being dumped there,” a DOJ official told NBC News on Friday.
However, a former DOJ official told Bloomberg that “the decision to move [Amundson] from public integrity is perplexing to a lot of people.”
Amundson ran a recent investigation into Trump ally and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to Bloomberg. He also brought charges against Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.
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