WASHINGTON – Attorney General Pam Bondy ordered a federal prosecutor’s review of Donald Trump on Wednesday after he issued a series of instructions designed to overhaul the Justice Department.
Hours after she was sworn in the White House, Bondy called for the creation of a “Weaponization Working Group” that scrutinizes the work of Jack Smith, a special advisor who indicted Trump in two criminal cases. The group will also review “unethical prosecutions” that stem from the US Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
What you need to know
Attorney General Pam Bondy ordered a review of the federal indictment of Donald Trump after being sworn in the White House on Wednesday, after he issued a series of instructions that the president argued was biased against conservatives. Bondi himself claims that Jack, a special adviser who indicted Trump in two criminal cases that foresaw the creation of a working group by asserting that the Department of Justice had last month – We called for the creation of a Weaponization Working Group to investigate Smith’s work. “Target Donald Trump”
The memo satisfies years of claims from Trump and his allies who were “weaponized” by the Justice Department under the Biden administration against conservatives. I support the idea that the prosecution against Trump was launched for partisan purposes.
It’s signed by Bondi, designed to suit the White House priorities that rolled back the Biden administration’s policies and decided to consider the Department of Justice as dishonest, as federal law enforcement and professional employee purge agencies. It was one of the 14 directives that were made.
Other directives signed by Bondi include an order to lift the suspension on the federal death penalty and an order to terminate federal grants administered by the Department of Justice in a jurisdiction that “illegally obstructs federal law enforcement.” There was.
Bondy himself foresaw the creation of a “weaponized” working group by claiming that the Justice Department “targeted Donald Trump” at a confirmation hearing last month. The Department of Justice will provide the White House with a quarterly report on the progress of the review. This looks for review progress, saying, “it appears to be designed to achieve political or other inappropriate objectives rather than pursuing justice.” Note.
In another memo, Bondy said the prosecutors would “go to brief to discuss on behalf of the administration, saying that it is the job of a departmental lawyer to actively defend presidential policies and actions against legal issues. He wrote that if he refuses to sign on or appear in court, he could face shootings.
The gust of activity is a dramatic reshaping of Bondi and former Florida Attorney General’s Department of Justice, a longtime Trump ally and defending the president in the first perch trial against allegations that he abused power in his office. indicates.
Democrats who opposed the confirmation of Bondy raised concerns about whether they could lead the Justice Department from the White House given their close ties with the president. To revenge on his perceived enemy.
Bondi said politics doesn’t play a role in her decision-making, but she refused at a confirmation hearing last month to eliminate potential investigations into Trump’s enemy. She also reiterated Trump’s claim that the charges against him amounted to political persecution and that the senator told the Justice Department “has been weaponized for years, but it has to stop.” .
Despite the broad ambitions of the “Weaponization Working Group” memo, there is no indication that the group has tools such as subpoena that could force subjects in question to work with the new unit.
The memo claims it aims to “weaponize” the Department of Justice, but from Biden’s Department of Justice’s Democrat review investigation, including a special advisor probe, the handling of the former president’s classification information and his son Hunter’s son That is specifically excluded, including guns and taxes. The claim was convicted of a felony in December before his father allowed him.
Smith’s team investigated Trump about his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the hoarding of taxonomy documents at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago Estate. Both of these cases resulted in charges that were withdrawn after Trump’s November presidential victory, as longtime Justice Department policies ban federal prosecutions on sitting presidents.
Smith forced the prosecutor to defend him, saying politics played no role in his team’s decision. He said, “I stood up for the rule of law.” The gathering is enough to convict Trump on a charge of a plan to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and Trump said he would “reverse the legitimate outcome of the election in order to maintain power.” He accused him of unprecedented criminal efforts.
Bondi was sworn in by Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas along with Trump on Wednesday. This is the first time Trump has participated in the second term oath of a cabinet member, and after taking office in 2021, Trump’s intense personalities for the department’s activities that investigated him and indicted him during his first term. He emphasized his interest.
Trump praised Bondy’s record as a prosecutor, saying she would restore “fair, equal and fair justice” in the department.
Bondi told the president he wouldn’t disappoint him.
“I’m proud of you, and I’m proud of this country,” she told him. “I will restore integrity to the Department of Justice, fight violent crimes in this country and across this world, and make America safe again.”
Bondi will enter the department shaken by the firing of career prosecutors and senior FBI officials, along with a very rare scrutiny of the thousands of agents involved in the January 6 investigation.
This week, FBI agents sued after the Justice Department demanded that the names of all agents involved in the January 6 investigation be handed over to the bureau.
Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said in a memo to the workforce on Wednesday that FBI agents were not at risk of being fired for “simply following the orders and carrying out their duties in an ethical way.” The only employees to worry about wrote, “Those who acted with corrupt or partisan intentions.”
“Continued efforts to protect alleged stakeholders on these issues that distort that simple truth, politicize the bureau, undermining its credibility and diverting the public from the excellent work of everyday life. There is no honor,” Bove wrote.
