Leading corporate crime lawyer leaves Justice Department over opposition to Donald Trump

Hui Chen says she felt 'hypocritical' working for the Mr Trump's Government

A top corporate compliance lawyer at the US Department of Justice quits because of Donald Trump's behaviour. (Olivier Douliery-Pool via Getty Images)

A top corporate crime lawyer at the US Department of Justice resigned over Donald Trump's numerous lawsuits and alleged conflicts of interest between his family business and government work.

Hui Chen, one of the lead corporate compliance counsel in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division of the agency, left her position last month and wrote a LinkedIn post to explain her decision.

She was a contractor for the agency, not a full-time employee.

Ms Chen wrote that it was "not an easy decision" but one she was forced to make due to the nature of her position and the behaviour of those in the administration.

“Trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to was creating a cognitive dissonance that I could not overcome," she wrote.

Ms Chen wrote said she felt "hypocritical" questioning private companies' compliance measures when the President and his campaign team are being investigated for the type of actions she would "not tolerate" from companies.

It felt "very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic" to her.

She joined the agency in 2015 and recently gained notoriety for her tweets criticising the Trump administration.

On 19 May, she tweeted this picture of the outside of the Trump hotel in Washington DC.

Ms Chen's banner picture on Twitter also shows her protesting outside of the White House wearing a hat that read "RESIST," a mantra of Mr Trump's opposition.

She also wrote in her farewell post: "What will I do now? The mission is the same: to make a difference. It seems clear that there is much work to do not only in taking corporate ethics & compliance to the next level, but also in raising the moral consciousness of societies."