Donald Trump was hit with another dose of unwanted drama on Friday when Julianne Murray, his handpicked U.S. attorney for Delaware, abruptly stepped down.
Her resignation added yet another crack to an already shaky effort by the Trump administration to fill key legal posts with loyalists. And this time, the embarrassment was impossible to ignore.
Murray, who only took the job in July, said she could not stay in the role “in good conscience.” Her announcement landed like a blow, especially because she had been one of the more outspoken defenders of Trump’s approach to federal law enforcement. Now she was walking away, and she made sure everyone knew why.
She pointed directly at politics.
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She said the position had turned into a “political football,” and she refused to be part of it. Her statement came after a significant legal setback for Trump’s team earlier in the week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that his acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, had been unlawfully appointed. Habba resigned almost immediately.
That ruling also applies to Delaware, and Murray clearly saw the writing on the wall. Instead of waiting to be pushed out, she chose to leave on her own terms.
Her departure is another hit for Trump, who has spent months trying to place trusted allies in powerful legal posts. The effort has been shaky from the start. Many of these appointments bypassed the usual Senate approval process, raising questions about legality, process, and motive. Murray became the latest figure caught in the fallout.
She blamed Democratic lawmakers for refusing to sign the traditional “blue slip,” a century-old procedure that gives home-state senators input on nominees. She accused Delaware’s Democratic delegation of blocking her purely for political reasons. But critics quickly pointed out that Murray herself had led the state’s Republican Party before stepping into the federal job.
Either way, her frustration was evident.
She said she had “naively believed” she would be judged on her work rather than her politics. Instead, she found herself in the middle of a fight she no longer wanted to carry.
To soften the blow, Murray backed her replacement, Ben Wallace, who had served as her first assistant. She praised him as the right person to take over, but the endorsement did little to change the reality: another Trump-aligned attorney was out, and Trump himself was left taking the hit.
For a president already facing scrutiny over loyalty, appointments, and the growing sense that his legal strategy is wobbling, the timing could not be worse. Habba’s forced resignation was messy. Murray’s exit made it even messier. And the pattern is becoming hard to ignore.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
