In the three-plus months Bill Essayli has run the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office, he has ignored and overruled the recommendations of senior prosecutors, instructed staff to disregard Justice Department policies, and forced lawyers to redo indictment failures before new grand juries, multiple lawyers with knowledge of the matters told Ben Penn and Maia Spoto.
Essayli’s pattern of yelling at career attorneys to pursue MAGA-aligned cases despite their warnings of insufficient evidence has contributed to an exodus from the LA-based district, according to the attorneys, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. ...