Reagan Judge Says He Quit Bench to Speak Out Against Trump

A senior Reagan appointed trial judge said he resigned Friday in order to speak out against the Trump administration’s “assault on the rule of law.”

“President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment,” Mark Wolf wrote Sunday in the Atlantic. “This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench.”

Wolf was 38 when President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1985 and he continued to hear cases after taking senior status in 2013.

Wolf’s resignation comes at a time of rising tension between the federal judiciary and the Trump administration. At a Federalist Society event Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called on young conservative lawyers in the audience to join the fight against so-called “activist judges.” “It’s a war, man,” Blanche said.

Several other Reagan-appointed judges have emerged this year as vocal critics of the Trump administration’s efforts to circumvent court orders and challenge the law in unprecedented ways.

Wolf has been a notably outspoken senior judge. He testified before a Senate panel in 2023 about concerns he raised the previous decade about how ethics complaints against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas were handled. At the 2023 hearing, Republican senators suggested he was part of a partisan attack against Thomas and the Supreme Court.

In his Atlantic article, Wolf invokes his prior experience at the Justice Department where he began as a special assistant to Deputy Attorney General Laurence Silberman in 1974. He then served as a special assistant to Attorney General Edward Levi before joining the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts where he prosecuted public corruption cases.

He cites Trump’s September social media post directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek indictments against the president’s political enemies and subsequent charges brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

“As I watched in dismay and disgust from my position on the bench, I came to feel deeply uncomfortable operating under the necessary ethical rules that muzzle judges’ public statements and restrict their activities,” Wolf wrote. “Day after day, I observed in silence as President Trump, his aides, and his allies dismantled so much of what I dedicated my life to.”

Wolf also said he was concerned that Trump has dismantled “the offices that could and should investigate possible corruption by him and those in his orbit” including firing agency inspectors general and eliminating the FBI’s public-corruption squad, as well as the rising number of threats against judges.

“I resigned in order to speak out, support litigation, and work with other individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the rule of law and American democracy,” Wolf said. “I also intend to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.”