Justice Dept.’s weapon group emphasizes Trump’s quest for retaliation

The Ministry of Justice’s newly created “Weapon Work Group” announced in a memo this week by Attorney General Pam Bondi, was allegedly intended to eradicate “abuse from the criminal process” of local and federal law enforcement authorities.

But a literal reading of its name suggests that the investigating body was also an example of the department itself, now under new leadership, weapons about its expansive powers to investigate and perhaps intervene against several officials who have run by president for various reasons Trump.

“They try to politicize all this,” said Donald Voiret, a former FBI Senior Chief, who was the supreme agent in Seattle and also ran the bureau’s London office before retiring in 2022. “They do exactly what they accused FBI and doj to do. “

The memo, which was issued on Wednesday, signaled the most significant first step in inserting the government’s handles to perform Mr. Trump’s repeated suggestions for accurate retribution against those he perceives to be his enemies.

While the memo contained some conciliation that promised that no one who had “acted with a fair spirit and just intentions” had any reason for alarm, it also included a laundry list of Republican Boogeymen and complaining that the working group was intended to address.

At the top of the list were three prosecutors, all of whom brought separate cases against Mr. Trump, though there is no indication that any of them violated the law. They are former special adviser Jack Smith; Alvin L. Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney; and LETITIA James, New York Attorney General.

Mr. Smith’s two cases accused Mr. Trump to try to undermine the 2020 election and to illegally stick to classified documents after leaving the office in 2021-been rejected after Trump won re-election in November. The victory triggered a long -term policy for the Ministry of Justice, which prohibits pursuing prosecutions of a sitting president.

Mr. Bragg’s case was more successful and resulted in Mr. Trump’s beliefs about 34 crime counts about forgery of business registers to cover a sex scandal on the threshold of the 2016 election. In Ms. James’s case became Mr. Trump found civilian responsible for documenting the value of his property portfolio and was required to pay a penalty of more than $ 450 million.

The directive is equally remarkable for what it does not say. Former officials and lawyers who represented some of those who might be targeted said the memo was too ambiguous to give a clear indication of how the department was planning to continue.

Nevertheless, the original absence of a more aggressive approach – such as immediately referring to any of the inquiries to a US law firm for investigation – suggested that officials in the senior departments weigh how to best balanced Mr. Trump’s search for retaliation with their need to avoid actions it would strike back or destabilize the department.

Ms. Bondis Memo also instructed the working group to investigate what it described as the “Incorrect Investigation Tactic and Unethical Current”, which comes from the Ministry of Justice’s scattered investigation into the attack on Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Republicans have repeatedly accused the FBI of acting strongly in January 6-related cases. They have complained that the agency focused too much on non-violent rebels, used SWAT teams to arrest some suspects and depended on a wide “geo-fence” that used electronic data from sources like Google to clarify people’s location within limited areas of capitol.

Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress, who pursue their own investigations of investigators, have calmly warned those around the president to continue with caution.

There are political disadvantages to publicly visiting Mr. Trump’s documents and his efforts to overthrow the election in 2020 and remind voters of his past behavior when many Americans have proved willing to move on.

For all their public bluster, house Republicans are especially vigilant to give Mr. Smith a platform to refill his case against the president.

Ms. Bondi, who served as a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump during his first trial, has enthusiastically embraced his claim that he was the subject of a witch hunt. But she stressed to see “Forward” rather than behind in discussions with senators led to her confirmation, and moved the discussion to her crime control plans as the Democrats questioned her independence from Mr. Trump under her testimony.

The Ministry of Justice’s independent watchdog, the inspector’s office, typically examines allegations of mismatches from the FBI, which is then evidence of a crime, then referred to federal prosecutors, as was the case in the Bureau’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Ms. Bondis Memo seems to have skipped the normal practice and gives investigative powers directly to the charges themselves. Furthermore, it seems to have drawn some conclusions in advance. It accuses Mr. Smith for already engaged in “weapons” and uses inflammatory language to describe a court -authorized search of Mr. Trump’s residence in Florida in August 2022 as a “unprecedented raid.”

In addition to investigating the work of specific agents and prosecutors, Mrs. Bondis Memo said, the new investigative team would also investigate other questions examined by a similarly named congress organ: The house chooses the Under Committee for Weapons from the Federal Government, led by a close ally of Mr. Trump, representative Jim Jordan of Ohio.

One of Mr. Jordan’s former helpers, Tom Ferguson, was recently installed with the FBI as senior policy adviser, which means he will act as a key help for Kash Patel if he was confirmed as FBI director.

Mr. Jordan’s subcommittee focused on several features made by federal law enforcement during the Biden administration, which has long served as flash points for Republican indignation.

Among them was the issue of an FBI memo that suggested that certain Catholic practices were associated with extremism and the release of a separate Ministry of Justice’s memo, which Mr. Trump and others repeatedly have – and false – claimed authorized terrorism investigations by conservative parents who sent their statements at school board meetings.

Last spring, the inspector’s office released a report on 11-page memo about Catholics and said the violated professional standards but showed “no evidence of malicious intention.” It is still unclear why Mrs. Bondi has asked the working group to visit the same topic.

According to the memo, Mrs. Bondi’s office would take the lead to run the working group with the support of the Office of the Deputy Government Attorney, as Mr. Trump has said to be run by Todd Blanche, one of his former criminal defense lawyers.

Given that many of the working group’s investigative goals are in Washington, the note said it would also include representatives of the US Washington law firm. This office is currently being led by Ed Martin, a Trump Loyalist who has spent the last four years raising money for – and in some cases personally defending – January 6th defendant.