Former federal prosecutors running for House seats as Dems

A number of former federal prosecutors have decided to campaign this year for House seats as Democrats.

The Wall Street Journal reported that five former federal prosecutors are planning to run this year.

In 2016, according to the Journal, no former federal prosecutors ran.

Chris Hunter — one of the five running — chose to leave his job as a federal prosecutor over concerns about what was going on at the Justice Department, according to the newspaper.

He cited the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump’s attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions among the reasons he left his job.

“If Jeb Bush had been the [presidential] nominee and won, no way would I have run,” Hunter, who is running in Florida’s 12th Congressional District, said. {mosads}

A candidate in Virginia, Paul Pelletier, attacked incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) for sitting “silently each and every day as the president and this Republican Congress denigrate and impugn the integrity of federal law enforcement, the same man and women who protect us every single day.”

A spokesman for Comstock told the Journal that she has “been a strong advocate for her former colleagues at Justice and the FBI.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) — a former prosecutor — said he doesn’t think there is any larger meaning in the number of former federal prosecutors running.

“Voters on both sides of the aisle respect prosecutors and law-enforcement officers—they just do,” he told the Journal.

The Journal has identified no former prosecutors or FBI agents running as Republicans this year.

Trump has in the past gone after the FBI and the Justice Department. Earlier this month, he approved the release of a GOP memo alleging surveillance abuses at the Justice Department.

He had seized on the memo as evidence of bias in the top ranks of the intelligence community. After its release, Trump said the Republican-crafted document “totally vindicates” him in the special counsel probe into Russia’s election interference and possible ties between his campaign and Russia.