(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Biden-Harris administration appears to have intensified its efforts to block a potential return by President Donald Trump to the White House, according to a report from the Daily Caller on Tuesday.
The current administration has resorted to using a “Schedule A” hiring rule to staff DOJ offices with individuals who may be shielded from potential termination by a new administration, including that of Trump if he wins the 2024 election.
Several hundred employees have been hired under this rule, bypassing merit-based qualifications and allowing them to keep their jobs even at the end of the current administration’s term.
Put in practice, this means that if Trump is sworn in as president, he could find himself grappling with leftover Biden appointees. This follows several reports suggesting that President Joe Biden is implementing policies designed to undermine Trump if elected.
According to documents released by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) and first reported by the Caller, the specific offices targeted include the powerful Environmental and Natural Resources (ENRD) and the Antitrust and Immigration Review departments.
PPT Director Michael Chamberlain suggested that the use of “Schedule A” could be part of the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to hamstring their successor and block future presidents from reversing their agenda.
“Exploiting non-competitive hiring authorities to fill career civil service positions could be just another component of this scheme,” Chamberlain said, as cited by the Caller. “It’s no wonder that the public’s trust in its government has all but disappeared.”
Documents obtained by PPT reveal that the DOJ has hired over 100 immigration judges using this rule. These individuals are responsible for determining whether illegal aliens can remain in the U.S. while their cases are pending.
“The administration is also using Schedule A to install immigration judges — again, outside of the normal merit-based system — who will rule on cases of those in a position to benefit from the administration’s immigration policies,” PPT stated in a press statement.
The use of “Schedule A” has also been extended to ENRD, a DOJ division tasked with enforcing environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
PPT sounded the alarm that ENRD is a “vital office in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s energy and climate policies, and the placement of Biden-Harris loyalists is a means to defend those policies even if a future Trump (or other) administration seeks to change them.”
The DOJ’s antitrust division has also seen an increase in staff members hired through “Schedule A,” likely compromising the non-partisan nature of the federal department.
“Until recently, antitrust enforcement was a relatively technical and non-partisan division. But the Biden-Harris administration’s increasingly aggressive implementation has sparked complaints of politicized enforcement,” PPT warned.
Headline USA could not reach a DOJ spokesperson through its media mainline or after-hours hotline at 9:40 p.m. ET. A separate call to the operator’s hotline also prompted an automated message claiming the offices were closed.
See the appointees’ names below, as detailed in a document released by the Caller and PPT.
