The Department of Justice is adding 300 assistant U.S. attorneys to its rolls around the U.S., referring to the hires as the “largest increase in decades,” The Hill reports. DOJ said the move would “increase resources to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis.” The department said it will add 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors and 35 immigration prosecutors. The department said that many of the civil enforcement assistant U.S. attorneys would help support the Trump administration’s Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force.
The announcement came as President Trump continues to attack the department for its role in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia’s election meddling. Trump said last month that he regretted his decision to choose Sessions as attorney general. Sessions has been a target of the president’s ire since he recused himself from Mueller’s Russia probe in 2016. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself … I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined.”