Veteran conservative lawyer quits Trump’s interior department and warns of ‘assault on the rule of law’

John Murdock had been working for the agency for 18 years and his resignation comes during an exodus of longtime federal workers and scientists

An 18-year veteran of the US Department of Interior has resigned in protest from the sprawling federal agency, denouncing “a deeply troubling assault on the rule of the law” that took place at the department under Donald Trump.

John Murdock, an attorney and self-described conservative Christian, began working for the agency’s legal office in 2002. In his resignation letter, first sent to his supervisor earlier this year and obtained exclusively by the Guardian and Public Domain, Murdock cites “glaring legal flaws” he witnessed within the agency during the course of the Trump administration, as well as concerns over offshore oil and gas drilling, the aggressive push to expand fossil fuels and the flouting of environmental regulation.