He has yet to be sworn in but Virginia’s Republican Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares has already fired dozens of lawyers, including those working in the Office of Civil Rights, and including those who are not political appointees but career civil servants.
Miyares campaigned on enforcing the law while promising to refuse to allow coronavirus mitigation efforts including masks and vaccine requirements, despite the surging pandemic.
But enforcing the law – certainly specific aspects like civil rights – will be much harder when he is sworn into office on Saturday.
“I’ve been told incoming AG @JasonMiyaresVA just FIRED the entire civil rights division in the Attorney General’s office,” tweeted Virginia Democratic state Senator L. Louise Lucas, the President Pro tempore. “My bill helped create and expand the authority that this division uses.”
“This whole campaign we had to listen to @JasonMiyaresVA whining about local prosecutors choosing not to prosecute certain crimes- then he gets elected and eliminates an entire division dedicated to enforcing civil rights law. Total hypocrisy and it needs to be SEEN,” she added.
It’s unclear if Miyares has fired the entire civil rights division but the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports he has fired 30 attorneys including “Helen Hardiman, an assistant attorney general who focuses on investigating and litigating against housing discrimination in the Office of Civil Rights.”
“I am not a political appointee. I don’t have a political job,” she says, adding she has 20 cases that are in court or going to trial.
“I don’t want those people who have been discriminated against to be left hanging,” Hardiman said. “I also felt like a cursory email with 24 hour notice was unprofessional. And I’m disappointed that the new administration seems to be signaling that they care less about civil rights issues like fair housing than the current administration.”
On his Twitter page Miyares posted numerous platitudes and promises like, “My oath of allegiance is to follow the law, to respect the code of Virginia, and the people of Virginia As AG, I am going to go back to calling balls and strikes and we are going to enforce the law.”
He also posted tweets attacking coronavirus mitigation policies, saying, “no Virginian should be forced to choose between their job and the vaccine.”