WASHINGTON — Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan, best known for her 2019 testimony in favor of impeaching then-President Donald Trump, quietly left the Justice Department this month as a conservative group ratcheted up attacks on an “unethical” arrangement in which she continued to earn nearly $1 million a year from Stanford while working for the government.
Karlan joined the department on Feb. 8, 2021, shortly after President Biden’s inauguration, and served about 17 months as principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights before she departed on July 1 with little fanfare.
Karlan’s role was slated to last until at least Aug. 22 and possibly run into September, meaning she stepped down about two months earlier than planned. She left one business day before the department delivered documents to the American Accountability Foundation pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request, bringing more attention to her unusual pay provisions.
A Justice Department official told The Post that Karlan updated her departure date in March to allow more time to prepare for the school year, but declined to share documentation.
Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, said the timing of Karlan’s departure — which wasn’t advertised except for with an update to verb tenses on her DOJ biography — was curious given his group’s escalating campaign against her.
“As the old cliche goes, you cannot serve two masters. Pamela Karlan was a paid employee at Stanford University when she was supposed to be serving the Department of Justice,” said Jones, a former Republican staffer on Capitol Hill.
“President Biden and [Attorney General] Merrick Garland enabled this unethical sweetheart deal to go after Americans. We’re glad that