Trump47 DOJ | New rules allow PoTUS and AG to discuss criminal cases

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nycfan

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Trying to break up the first week firehose thread I to more focused topics as makes sense.

Lots of changes in how and what the DOJ will focus on is not uncommon when the executive branch changes parties, but the whiplash could be quite extreme here as Trump personal attorneys and an election denier AG are installed at the top.
 
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“They replaced a Biden-era memo telling prosecutors to show leniency to some drug offenders with a new policy calling for the pursuit of the most serious charges and the stiffest penalties for all crimes. They halted much of the department’s civil-rights and environmental work. And they transferred more than 15 career employees to relatively marginal positions, part of a broader effort to ultimately thin the workforce. That was just the first week.

… Many department employees are on edge as they await Senate confirmation of Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, is leading the department until then, along with acting Attorney General James McHenry, a longtime immigration lawyer, and his temporary deputy, Emil Bove, who previously served as one of Trump’s criminal defense attorneys.


As part of the department’s pivots, Mizelle issued a memo Friday sharply limiting prosecutions of people accused of blocking access to abortion clinics, calling such cases the “prototypical example” of federal weaponization.

Mizelle put an immediate hold on civil-rights litigation, meaning department lawyers can’t take additional steps in many existing cases “to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases,” according to a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Another memo told lawyers not to complete any settlements and suggested that the new administration could reconsider dozens of consent decrees meant to overhaul local police departments, a priority of the Biden administration.

Some of the Justice Department employees reassigned or demoted last week included people who advised on the two prosecutions of Trump or worked closely with Biden appointees in areas that the new leadership wants to overhaul or revamp. Those reassigned include lawyers who held senior roles within the national-security and criminal divisions. …”

 
Trying to break up the first week firehose thread I to more focused topics as makes sense.

Lots of changes in how and what the DOJ will focus on is not uncommon when the executive branch changes parties, but the whiplash could be quite extreme here as Trump personal attorneys and an election denier AG are installed at the top.

Gonna be impossible. I don't even know where to post things anymore. (This is not an indictment on you or the board) Trump is employing the weave into his policies and EO's. He is trying to make it impossible to focus on one particular thing. By the time one fire is ablaze and everyone is rushing to see it/put it out, he's started three more.
 

Justice Department Mass Fires Employees Involved in Prosecutions of Trump​




The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signaling an early willingness to take action favorable to the President’s personal interests.

The abrupt termination targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and is consistent with the administration’s determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the President.

The norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately. …”
 


“… The move to purge people who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith had ostensibly come from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, who sent the formal termination notices that said they could not be trusted to implement Trump’s agenda.

But the genesis for the firings was Trump himself, according to two people directly familiar with the matter …

Trump’s intervention to remove the prosecutors in Smith’s office was seen by some of his advisers as the start of their efforts to make it normal practice to have the attorney general work with the West Wing to enforce and enact its political agenda.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

After Trump instructed his advisers that he wanted the prosecutors gone, the White House presidential personnel office, led by longtime Trump ally Sergio Gor, issued a memo that directed the justice department to proceed and gave the move a degree of legal cover. …”

——
Possibly the least surprising scoop ever.
 


“… The move to purge people who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith had ostensibly come from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, who sent the formal termination notices that said they could not be trusted to implement Trump’s agenda.

But the genesis for the firings was Trump himself, according to two people directly familiar with the matter …

Trump’s intervention to remove the prosecutors in Smith’s office was seen by some of his advisers as the start of their efforts to make it normal practice to have the attorney general work with the West Wing to enforce and enact its political agenda.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

After Trump instructed his advisers that he wanted the prosecutors gone, the White House presidential personnel office, led by longtime Trump ally Sergio Gor, issued a memo that directed the justice department to proceed and gave the move a degree of legal cover. …”

——
Possibly the least surprising scoop ever.

Honestly, I thought that had been done on Day 2.
 

Pam Bondi issued a flurry of orders on Day 1 as Trump’s attorney general​



“… President Donald Trump’s attorney general issued a flurry of orders Wednesday just after she was sworn in, releasing 14 “first-day” directives. Among them, Bondi ordered the department to set up a task force to examine the “weaponization” of the Justice Department and rein in investigations into foreign influence. She also warned career lawyers at her agency not to try to thwart Trump administration policies. …”
 
Continued

“… Bondi directed the “weaponization” group to investigate former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the two federal criminal cases against Trump: one over Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and another on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

And she directed the group to examine “federal cooperation with the weaponization” by the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Bragg’s office brought the criminal hush money case against Trump that ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts of business fraud. James brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his family business that resulted in a judge ordering Trump to pay a massive civil judgment.

Trump has repeatedly vowed revenge on Bragg and James, both Democrats, saying Bragg should be prosecuted and that James is “grossly incompetent.” Trump and his supporters have also questioned the role of one of the prosecutors in Bragg’s office, Matthew Colangelo, who previously worked at the Justice Department. Trump has pointed to Colangelo’s resume to claim that former President Joe Biden’s administration played a role in bringing the criminal case. …”
 
“… Bondi also called for the group to examine “the pursuit of improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions” surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, though she sought to draw a distinction from “good-faith actions by federal employees simply following orders from superiors.” …”
 
“… Bondi’s memo on law-enforcement prioritiesalso said the FBI will shutter the Foreign Influence Task Force it set up during the first Trump administration. Additionally, the Justice Department will bring charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act only in “instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors,” the memo said.

The move seems to be an effort to shift the Justice Department away from prosecutions related to covert propaganda and behind-the-scenes “malign influence” campaigns. DOJ brought several such cases against Trump allies with mixed results. …”
 
“… Bondi also laid down a get-tough policy toward any career lawyers who might seek to undermine the Trump administration’s agenda, even going so far as to raise the possibility of firing attorneys who won’t go along with their superiors.

… “It is therefore the policy of the Department of Justice that any attorney who because of their personal political views or judgments declines to sign a brief or appear in court, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potential termination, consistent with applicable law,” she added.

That last part could be the rub: Civil service protections and legal ethics rules combine to make it difficult to take action against a government lawyer who says he or she thinks a particular argument is improper, unjustified or unethical.

Already, there have been notable filings in federal cases where Justice Department political appointees have signed pleadings alone, suggesting that career staff declined to do so. …”
 
“… She directed the creation of a “10-7” task force aimed at “seeking justice for victims of the attack and addressing the ongoing threat posed by Hamas and its affiliates, both domestically and abroad.”

In addition to pursuing criminal charges against those involved in the attack, the task force will investigate and prosecute “acts of terrorism, antisemitic civil rights violations, and other federal crimes committed by Hamas supporters in the United States, including on college campuses.” Trump has repeatedly vowed to deport foreign students who are backers of Hamas. …”
 
Bondi said the Justice Department would end a moratorium on federal executions that was put in place during the Biden administration
 
“…
Bondi reignited a long-running legal battle between DOJ and “sanctuary jurisdictions,” or cities or counties that have declined to cooperate with enforcement of federal immigration law.

She ordered the department to “pause the distribution of all funds until a review has been completed” of grants or other money flowing to those jurisdictions.

A similar move by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Trump’s first term led to lawsuits from localities that said the Justice Department lacked the authority to cut off funding.

Courts reached mixed verdicts, with a federal appeals court in Chicago ruling that the Trump administration appeared to have usurped Congress’ authority to restrict grants and an appeals court in New York finding DOJ’s policy met legal muster. …”
 

Justice Dept. Says It Will Not Bring Charges in Investigation of Project Veritas​

Prosecutors in New York had spent years pursuing a case against the conservative group over its role in the theft of a diary kept by Ashley Biden.


“… The prosecutors, who made their announcement in a one-paragraph letter to a judge overseeing the matter, did not say why they were declining to bring additional charges in the long running investigation.

In court filings in related cases, the Justice Department had laid out evidence of the group’s involvement in the effort to acquire and publish the diary, and had fought in court for access to evidence that investigators had obtained from the group’s operatives.

The investigation had raised difficult legal questions about the extent to which the First Amendment protected the publication of stolen materials.

But it was unclear whether the decision was part of a larger pattern by the Justice Department since President Trump took office to walk away from cases involving his allies. Project Veritas and its founder, James O’Keefe, have long been favorites of Mr. Trump’s and gained attention by using sting operations and undercover videos to seek to embarrass liberal groups and mainstream news organizations, among others. …”
 


Trump was going to do so regardless but still one of those frustrating conflicts the Trump Administration seems to favor.
 
"... Trump said he would establish a presidential commission on religious liberty that “will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right.”

The president also said he would sign an executive order to make Attorney General Pam Bondi the head of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” The task force will aim to stop “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government,” Trump said. ..."

 
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