TYLER O’NEIL: The Ghost of Eric Holder Haunts Trump’s Justice Department.

A lawyer who worked closely with Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder now works in President Donald Trump’s administration as an ostensibly nonpolitical staffer at the Justice Department.

While presidents appoint more than 3,000 people for political positions, the federal government directly employs roughly 2.3 million people, most of whom serve in purportedly nonpolitical, career positions. The Office of Personnel Management tracks when political appointees transition to career positions—a process often referred to as “burrowing in” to the bureaucracy—and Tina Thomas did so in August 2024.

Biden appointed Thomas as a political appointee in September 2021 to serve as senior counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department. She transitioned to a career role as assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., also in the Justice Department. OPM approved the transition on Aug. 11. Thomas went from an annual salary of $110,460 to $121,435.

Still a lot of swamp draining to go.