Long-term Los Angeles Times Employee Harry Litman announced his resignation from the newspaper on Thursday, citing changes in editorial direction under the leadership of billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong.

Litman, a former U.S. attorney and assistant attorney general with more than 15 years of experience at the metropolitan daily, was most recently the paper’s senior legal columnist.

He explained his decision to leave the outlet in an essay posted to his Substack on Wednesday: “Talking Feds.”

“I resigned from office yesterday. I don’t want to continue working for a newspaper that seems appeasing Trump and facilitated his attack on democratic rule for cowardly reasons,” Litman wrote.

“My resignation is a protest and a deep reaction against the behavior of the newspaper owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong,” he continued. “Soon-Shiong has taken several steps to force the newspaper to adopt a stance more sympathetic to Donald Trump, despite the strenuous objections of his staff.”

In October, Soon-Shiong made headlines after commissioning the paper increase his prepared endorsement of the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris– a decision that Litman described as “brutal, humiliating and unprofessional.”

“These steps cannot be defended as the type of political adjustment papers are carried out from time to time,” he added. “Given the existential risks to our democracy that I believe Trump’s second term poses, and the evidence that Soon-Shiong is ingratiating himself with the president-elect, they are repugnant and dangerous.”

Litman advocated an interview with MSNBC On Wednesday, he reiterated the paper’s apparent Trump-aligned future, saying, “I don’t think there’s any conclusion other than the owner of the paper.” L.A. Times decided to curry favor with Trump.”

“I think they’re cowering and concerned about their personal possessions,” he continued. “This is a truly shameful surrender. I felt like I couldn’t be there and had to step down.”

Soon-Shiong recently announced his intention to launch an AI-powered “bias meter” To L.A. Times He will publish a web article as early as next year expressing his desire for a more balanced media ecosystem.

While Litman did not address the meter module in his termination letter, he addressed the owner’s approach to “balanced” reporting, calling it a “terrible disregard for journalists’ primary responsibility to report the truth.”

“Soon-Shiong apparently would Just Give readers a presentation on the one hand and a presentation on the other,” he added. “But there is no ‘other hand.’ Trump is an inveterate liar, and journalists have a critical responsibility to call this out.”