Federal prosecutor quits after being ordered to ‘report on colleagues doing diversity work’, and now she’s coming for Trump’s allies

Erika Evans used to work as a federal prosecutor in Seattle. She got her dream job as an assistant US attorney almost four years ago. But after Donald Trump returned to the White House, Evans said the job felt different. She did not agree with the new direction of the Department of Justice and soon decided to leave her position.

According to CNN, Evans said she was troubled by the department’s moves, including rolling back diversity efforts and placing federal DEI employees on administrative leave and supporting Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship. She said it no longer felt like the DOJ she had joined. What pushed her to quit was when staff were told to report coworkers who were doing diversity work. “We were getting notices to report on colleagues doing diversity work in the office, and that if we reported it within 10 days, we wouldn’t be in trouble,” she said. She called this “crazy” and said it made her feel like she could no longer be part of that workplace.

Now, Evans is running to become the next city attorney of Seattle. She wants to be the first Black person to hold the position in the city’s 150-year history. Her platform focuses on fighting hate crimes, stopping housing discrimination, and preventing wage theft. She says her decision to run is also influenced by her family’s history of standing up against injustice.

She joins a growing number of former federal employees running for office

Evans is not alone. More former federal workers who left their jobs under the Trump administration are now running for office. Some left by choice while others were fired. Many are running as Democrats and say they want to fight back against Trump’s controversial administration policies. These include people like Ryan Crosswell, a former Department of Justice lawyer who left after the agency dropped a corruption case. He is now running for Congress in Pennsylvania.

Groups like Run for Something and Emerge are helping these new candidates. They train former and current federal workers who want to enter politics. Emerge says that many of the people they are helping are women and people of color. These groups believe that former public workers already know how to serve people and understand how government works.

Evans completed Emerge’s training before starting her campaign. She is one of four people running for Seattle city attorney, including the current officeholder Ann Davison, a Republican. While Davison has support from some Democrats, Evans is backed by Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown. The top two candidates in the August 5 primary will go on to the general election.

If elected, Evans plans to work closely with Attorney General Brown. She said she wants to fight back against what she sees as federal overreach under the Trump administration. “The strength of our country is its diversity and when that’s under attack, that’s something we should all be caring about,” she said.