Who Stood Up to Trump, and Who Folded

Ordered in February 2025 to drop the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams in exchange, she wrote, for Adams’s cooperation on deportations. Sassoon, a Scalia clerk and a Federalist Society conservative, wrote the Attorney General an eight-page letter saying she could find no good-faith basis for the dismissal, and resigned rather than sign it. The courage was in who she was: the administration had picked her because it expected loyalty.What it cost them: her career in the Justice Department. The case was dropped by someone else.

A decorated Army veteran and the lead prosecutor on the Adams case, he resigned rather than file the dismissal after Sassoon refused, with a letter that ended: “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”What it cost them: his job. They found someone.

Survived the January 2025 purge of seventeen inspectors general. On February 10 he published a report saying oversight of $8.2 billion in aid had become “largely nonoperational” because the agency had been gutted. He knew what had happened to the seventeen and published anyway. He was fired by email the next evening.What it cost them: his job, within 24 hours.

Concluded, after months of investigation, that the evidence did not support charging Letitia James. He said so, and was pushed out in September 2025. His replacement, drawn from the President’s personal legal team, indicted James and James Comey within weeks. Both indictments were thrown out because she had been unlawfully appointed.What it cost them: his job.

Told by Homeland Security that 15,903 “potential” noncitizens were on Nevada’s rolls, he asked for the names instead of purging them. When DHS sent 185 voter-ID numbers it had manually reviewed, his office checked every one. Its records showed all 185 were citizens. He said so publicly, in a state Trump carried.What it cost them: seven FBI subpoenas and a public threat of “prison time” from the DHS Secretary.

Asked, by phone, from the President’s lunch with tobacco executives at his Jupiter golf club, to approve fruit-flavored vapes he had held up for months, the Times reported. He did not pick up. The agency cleared a path for them within a week anyway, and he resigned on May 12, 2026. A Trump appointee refusing a direct request from the President’s table.What it cost them: his job.

Voted no on the SAVE Act, twice. Announced his retirement after the President attacked him for an earlier vote. Has since called his vote to confirm Hegseth “the biggest regret of my career,” the AP reported.What it cost them: his seat, by his own choice, rather than vote the other way.

Sued over a $2.2 billion research-funding freeze when the administration demanded control over hiring, admissions and curriculum. Won in September 2025; the judge found antisemitism had been used “as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault.” It fought while Columbia settled.What it cost them: months without most of its federal research money until the court restored it; now on appeal.

The first firm hit with an executive order stripping its lawyers’ security clearances and its clients’ federal contracts, for having represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It sued within five days rather than negotiate, and won; Judge Beryl Howell called the order “settling personal vendettas.”What it cost them: fees, lost clients, and a D.C. Circuit appeal argued in May and still pending.

Told by the Justice Department in August 2025 to hand over Minnesota’s full voter file, down to partial Social Security numbers, he refused until the department said how the data would be used and who would see it. It never answered; it sued that September. On August 17, 2026, a federal judge dismissed the suit, writing that the government was treating a civil action as a “fishing expedition.”What it cost them: a lawsuit, dismissed and now on appeal.

On a recorded August call, Hebert asked the DHS official whether the 15,903 figure had been vetted. The answer, per CNN: “I probably wouldn’t use the sentence, ‘It hasn’t been vetted’... But it hasn’t had a full manual review of each one.” The recording surfaced through records requests, which is why the number collapsed in public rather than in a filing.What it cost them: the same subpoenas that hit her office.

A conservative lawyer who helped win the presidential-immunity case. When Stephen Miller pushed to suspend habeas corpus in 2025, Scharf wrote the chief of staff a memo, dated April 29, saying only Congress can do that. The Times called it “a blinking red warning light.” The writ was not suspended.What it cost them: none visible. He is still in the White House.

Targeted for once employing a prosecutor from the Mueller investigation. Sued, and won a permanent injunction in district court.What it cost them: fees and clients, while nine larger firms were cutting deals.

Targeted for its ties to Robert Mueller. Sued, and won; the court found the order unconstitutional retaliation for the firm’s choice of clients.What it cost them: fees and clients, and the appeal.

The last of the four to be targeted, after representing Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against Fox. Sued, and won in district court.What it cost them: fees and clients, and the appeal.

One of four Republicans who voted against attaching the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, to the budget reconciliation bill. It needed 60 votes and failed 48–50 on June 4, 2026. She has said openly that colleagues are afraid of retaliation.What it cost them: the President’s hostility, in a seat not up until 2028.

A Kemp appointee on a board whose majority is aligned with the President. When the board’s executive director sent letters on board letterhead asking the Justice Department to override Georgia’s voting system and investigate the Republican Secretary of State, Fervier told Votebeat the board had never seen them: “We have no control over our executive director, and he does whatever the hell he wants to.”What it cost them: open war with his executive director and his backers on the board.

Asked by the Justice Department to re-indict Letitia James after the first indictment was dismissed. Two panels of citizens looked at the government’s evidence and declined, on December 4 and December 11, 2025, the AP reported.What it cost them: nothing. No new indictment; the department appealed the dismissal December 19.

Blocked the President’s mail-ballot order three times, most recently in late August, days after the Postal Service’s final rule, finding that no law gave the Postal Service the power it was claiming. The Supreme Court left her order in place for this election.What it cost them: reversed once on procedure. Justice Kavanaugh has said he may see it differently later.

Ruled in September 2025 that the firing of the inspectors general broke the law: “That much is obvious.” She then declined to reinstate anyone, because the President could lawfully fire them again in thirty days, and said what the law would not let her fix: “They deserved better from their government. They still do.”What it cost them: none. Remedy: none yet; a back-pay claim is on hold.

Voted no on the SAVE Act, twice, and did not join the President’s push to make John Thune end the filibuster. Retiring.What it cost them: nothing further to lose, which is its own comment.