WASHINGTON, March 8 – The director of a key U.S. Justice Department task force combating drug trafficking and organized crime was dismissed on Friday, as President Donald Trump's administration continues efforts to remove or sideline career officials.
Adam Cohen, who led the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, announced his firing in a social media post, stating that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—Trump’s former defense attorney, confirmed as the Justice Department’s No. 2 official just two days earlier—was responsible for his removal.
Cohen’s dismissal came just 18 hours after Blanche circulated a memo that Cohen had helped draft, which detailed a new initiative, “Operation Take Back America,” assigning the task force a leading role in combating illegal immigration.
“It was a shock,” Cohen wrote on LinkedIn, adding that he had been working closely with leadership on violent crime initiatives.
“Putting bad guys in jail was as apolitical as it gets,” he stated. “My personal politics were never relevant—until yesterday.”
Cohen's removal is the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration targeting career Justice Department officials, who typically retain their positions across different administrations.
On the same day, three assistant U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York—two of whom were involved in the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams—were placed on administrative leave, according to an internal email from acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky obtained by Reuters.
The prosecutors, identified as Celia Cohen and Andrew Rohrbach, were among eight Justice Department attorneys in Washington and New York who had recently resigned in protest after refusing to drop the corruption charges against Adams.
“We were given no notice and were not consulted on this decision, which I strongly oppose,” Podolsky wrote in the email.
“On that case and others, Celia and Andrew did the right thing, for the right reasons, in the right way—every single day.”
A third prosecutor, Alex Kristofcak, who specializes in civil litigation, was also placed on leave due to remarks he made on social media. In his posts, Kristofcak criticized Washington, D.C.'s interim U.S. attorney, Ed Martin, for warning Georgetown University Law School that he would not hire its graduates unless the school removed diversity, equity, and inclusion from its curriculum.
“This is a grotesque abuse of power,” Kristofcak wrote. “I feel for my colleagues in D.C. who have to work under this thug of a boss.”