New leaders of Justice Dept. move to assert control over agency

WASHINGTON – The new leadership of the Justice Department moved swiftly on multiple fronts Wednesday to assert control over the FBI and marshal the power of federal law enforcement to investigate those who had investigated President Donald Trump.

Pam Bondi, who was sworn in as attorney general in an Oval Office ceremony, signed a memo creating a working group to review the “weaponization” of the criminal justice system by officials who had brought criminal charges or civil suits against Trump. It was one of 14 directives that shuttered department task forces, restored the federal death penalty and, above all else, mandated obedience to Trump’s agenda.

Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, arrived at headquarters, known as Main Justice, at a moment of profound and disruptive conflict between the department and its historically independent and powerful investigative arm, the FBI.

Hours earlier, the department’s No. 2 official, Emil Bove, escalated his conflict with the acting director of the FBI, Brian Driscoll, and his deputy, Robert C. Kissane. He accused them of “insubordination” after they resisted his efforts to identify agents who had investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Bondi’s first day on the job appeared to have been modeled on Trump’s, an intense blizzard of policy pronouncements intended to reverse Biden-era policies in a single swoop, coupled with accusations about the weaponization of the department under Democratic control.

Buried in the pile of memos were three significant national security actions, which could weaken efforts to combat foreign influence in U.S. elections, the economy and infrastructure: the disbanding of a foreign influence task force; new limitations on prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act; and the shutdown of a foreign corporate enforcement unit.

The attorney general, who had promised at her confirmation hearing last month that “politics will not play a part” in her investigative decisions, said she planned to scrutinize Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who had brought the first criminal case against a president over a hush-money payment to a porn actor; former special counsel Jack Smith, who had investigated Trump’s handling of classified records and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election; and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose civil fraud case against Trump had accused him of inflating the value of his properties.

Little information was given about the new working group’s mandate, members or powers – or how it squared with another memo Bondi signed Wednesday ending political “weaponization” at the department. It will be overseen by Bondi, her top aides, and the political leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the department’s repurposed civil rights division.

“No one who has acted with a righteous spirit and just intentions has any cause for concern,” the authors wrote.

Bove’s standoff with the acting FBI leadership began Friday, when he instructed the bureau to notify more than a half-dozen high-ranking career officials that they faced termination and asked for a list of all agents and FBI staff assigned to work on investigations relating to the Jan. 6 assault.

Bove added that the information would kick off a review process to determine whether any additional action was necessary.

Former Justice Department officials said that Bove’s request was unusual. In virtually all instances, allegations of FBI misconduct are referred to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an independent watchdog.

A day later, bureau employees received a remarkable questionnaire, asking them to detail any role they had in investigating and prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters.

Over the weekend, Kissane, seeking to allay the concerns of employees that any identifying information would put them in the Justice Department’s crosshairs, said that while the bureau did not know what the department intended to do with the data, the request was lawful.

On Wednesday, in a memo to the entire bureau, Bove said that the repeated failure of Driscoll and Kissane to provide the names of FBI employees on the “core team” that had prosecuted the rioters forced him to ask for a broader list of those who had investigated the Capitol attack.

The broadside came at a time of deepening crisis in the FBI. Even before Trump’s nominee to lead the bureau, Kash Patel, has been confirmed, the president’s team has pushed to identify and possibly purge nonpartisan career employees – from supervisors to line agents to analysts – involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.

Bove’s accusation of insubordination is likely to exacerbate the mistrust between the FBI and Justice Department that erupted into the open last week with Bove’s demand for the names of employees who had been involved in the Jan. 6 cases, the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

Bureau employees have rallied around the acting leaders, both of whom have told associates that they intend to go down fighting even at the cost of their jobs. Driscoll, 45, is not eligible for retirement.

In his memo Wednesday, which was viewed by the New York Times, Bove said that he had initially sought a narrower group of names. “The purpose of the requests was to permit the Justice Department to conduct a review of those particular agents’ conduct” to determine if they had committed ethical or procedural breaches, he wrote.

“FBI acting leadership refused to comply,” he added.

The “insubordination,” he said, forced the department to issue a far-reaching memo to all bureau employees requesting that they provide details about their involvement in the cases, which could include 5,000 of the department’s 38,000 employees.

Bove assured employees that no one would lose their job for following orders. “Let me be clear: No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to Jan. 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,” he said.

Bove said the bureau, whose workforce leans politically conservative, had let politics interfere with its work as he attacked the integrity of the acting leaders of the bureau. He made the accusations without citing evidence.

“There is no honor in the ongoing efforts to distort that simple truth or protect culpable actors from scrutiny on these issues, which have politicized the bureau, harmed its credibility and distracted the public from the excellent work being done every day,” he wrote.

The letter raises questions about why Bove did not fire the acting leaders of the bureau and why his original request was not in writing.

So far, the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has remained silent as tensions escalate between its political leadership and nonpartisan career officials at the bureau. Trump fired as many as 17 inspectors general last week but spared Horowitz because of his previous work investigating the FBI.

Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI immediately responded to a request for comment.

The policy memos Bondi signed were intended to chart the course laid out by Trump and his advisers. They included a rollback of environmental regulations, a threat to withhold department funding to sanctuary cities that obstruct immigration enforcement, a blueprint for enforcing Trump’s nullification of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a task force to study President Joe Biden’s commutation of inmates on federal death row.

Bondi also vowed to take action against officials who “substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,” an admonition that mirrored Bove’s message to the FBI.

The day began with fanfare. Trump swore in Bondi, a political ally who had worked for his nonprofit legal group, during a ceremony in the Oval Office that underscored her gratitude and fealty to the president.

“I’ve known you for many years,” she said, “and I will not let you down.”

Trump, for his part, predicted Bondi would do her job in a nonpartisan way – mostly.

“I know I’m supposed to say, ‘She’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,’ and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.