As scores of attorneys flee the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, nine of them recently withdrew from the federal case overseeing the Baltimore Police Department consent decree.

The wave of departures threatens to tilt the 8-year-old court case into dysfunction. It represents the strongest ripple effect yet for policing in Baltimore as President Donald Trump remakes the federal government, sparking the Justice Department exodus.

That exodus was foretold by civil-rights-focused legal experts in December, who described the current situation in hypothetical terms as the “worst-case scenario.”

Justice Department attorneys play a crucial and sometimes antagonistic role in police consent decrees — agreements that mandate reforms for law enforcement agencies following federal investigations. They are there to represent the view of the U.S. government and help determine whether reforms are constitutionally adequate.

Baltimore raced into its police consent decree in April 2017 after a federal investigation spurred by the death of Freddie Gray. At the time, the DOJ and the city’s urgency was increased by the incoming first Trump administration, which halted new decrees with law enforcement agencies.

In Baltimore, the Police Department’s consent decree has led to what city leaders describe as a “transformation,” reshaping policies on everything from using force to receiving reports of sexual assault.

While some criminal justice reformers are quick to point out that the process is expensive and imperfect, it has also yielded dramatic shifts in Baltimore policing, such as a steep drop in arrests without probable cause.

That progress, while significant, has moved slowly, and at a steep financial cost. The Police Department has spent millions to come into compliance with four of the agreement’s 17 key provisions and remains years away from exiting oversight.

Last week’s attorney withdrawals by the Justice Department shattered that status quo. A review of the federal docket shows that only one Justice Department attorney remains on the case.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

In the wake of Trump’s election last year, Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department civil rights attorney who now works as a professor at Georgetown University law school, predicted how a mass upheaval at the Civil Rights Division could erode police consent decrees across the country.

Now that it’s materialized, Lopez said it was “hard to overstate the significance of this many federal civil rights attorneys leaving the Civil Rights Division all at once.”

“I know that from talking with many of them that they are sick over this decision and they would not have left if they felt there was any real choice,” Lopez said.

The fate of the Baltimore Police consent decree has never been more precarious. Late last month, Trump issued an executive order titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” which called for a review of all existing police consent decrees in cities such as Baltimore and Cleveland.

Media reports circulating on Monday indicated that more than 70% of attorneys of the Civil Rights Division have left the DOJ in recent months — or some 250 of the division’s approximately 380 lawyers.

The departures come as the division moves from investigating unconstitutional policing and toward Trump-led priorities such as transgender women in sports and eradicating anti-Christian bias, according to media reports.

Vowing to stay the course, for now

In addition to the Justice Department, the consent decree is made up of attorneys for the city and an independent monitoring team that gauges Baltimore Police’s compliance and reports to the federal judge overseeing the case.

Kenneth Thompson, the lead attorney for the monitoring team, said he is aware of the Justice Department departures but offered no suggestion that it could slow down the consent decree.

“We intend to continue to proceed as directed by the court,” Thompson wrote in an email on Monday, adding that his team expects to begin compliance reviews in 11 of the 12 areas remaining for review by the end of the year.

On Monday, Baltimore Police said the agency “is aware of the recent attorney withdrawals and remains committed to working closely with the Court, the Department of Justice, and the Monitoring Team as needed.”

“We will continue to operate as a self-assessing and self-correcting agency and remain dedicated to advancing the reforms we have implemented over the past several years,” said spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge.

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Scott said his administration remains “unwavering in our commitment to the goals of the consent decree and will continue working in full collaboration with the monitoring team and the Court to ensure its complete and effective implementation.”

Heather Warnken, executive director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, said that there is “still hope” for the consent decree’s continued implementation, given that it is “in the hands of the federal court at this point and not the administration.”

But Warnken, who in the past worked as a fellow for the Justice Department, emphasized that the agency has “always played a critical role in the process.”

“Given the chilling mass exodus of civil rights enforcement staff, and the dramatic shift in priorities of the division away from its true purpose including outward hostility toward police accountability, it is nearly impossible to imagine a further downgrade in the effectiveness and potential of the consent decree to deliver real change,” Warnken said.

Baltimore Banner investigative reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this report.