This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

Since the start of Donald Trump's second term, it's estimated that over 300,000 federal workers have been forced out of their jobs

or have left voluntarily. And notable among them were thousands of federal prosecutors in the

Justice Department. These are generally ambitious, driven lawyers who could have been making much more

money in the private sector.

The Attorney General Pam Bondi has made no bones about putting the Justice Department on political missions, and quite a few career prosecutors just could not abide that, including

a man by the name of Troy Edwards.

I remember, it still seared into my memory. My dad would wake up in the morning at about

four something in the morning every morning and iron his uniform. That hiss of that iron is still

seared into my memory because I remember thinking, man, I want a job where I get to go serve

and I care so much about it that I'd wake up at 4 in the morning and ironed my

uniform. And the National Security Division gave me the chance to do that. As an assistant

U.S. attorney, Edwards prosecuted major January 6th cases, helping to win convictions against

members of the Oathkeepers. He later served as deputy chief of the National Security Section

in the Eastern District of Virginia. And when he resigned last year, that made headlines,

partly because Troy Edwards happens to be the son-in-law of James Comey, the controversial former FBI

director, who holds a top spot on Donald Trump's enemies list.

Edward spoke with the New Yorker's legal correspondent, Ruth Marcus.

So Pam Bondi comes in as Attorney General.

She sends out a memo advising you and your fellow prosecutors that your

job is to execute the views of the President of the United States. The President comes to the

...