Donald Trump aspires to lead the FBI and Justice Department. His partners have an idea

Nine sources involved in the initiative told Reuters that some of Donald Trump’s associates are putting together measures to limit the Justice Department’s independence and make the country’s top law enforcement agency an attack dog for conservative causes.

Given the Justice Department’s responsibility in defending democratic institutions and the rule of law, if the revamp is effective, it may be among the most significant initiatives of a second Trump administration.

The department’s mission statement opens new tab, which lists “independence and impartiality” as essential values, would also be drastically altered by this.

On the campaign trail, Trump, who has been charged with numerous felonies by the Justice Department, promised to restructure the organization in the event that he wins the presidency on November 5 and to use it to go after his rivals, including Democratic President Joe Biden.

According to the nine individuals Reuters spoke with, some of whom asked to remain anonymous in order to share internal discussions, the strategy is basically twofold.

Firstly, pack the Justice Department with resolute conservatives who are unlikely to refuse contentious directives from the White House. The second step is to reorganize the agency so that administration loyalists, not career bureaucrats, hold the majority of the important decisions.

According to those persons, the FBI, which many Republicans believe to be biased against them, would have new restrictions placed on its power and many of its duties would be transferred to other law enforcement organizations.

Steve Bannon, a well-known Trump supporter who faced legal action from the Justice Department and was found guilty of contempt of Congress, stated, “Trump feels that the DoJ has institutional problems.” “It’s not just personnel: you do need to purge the DoJ, but you also need to reform it.”

The Trump administration could implement conservative policy proposals like eliminating federal monitoring of police agencies accused of discriminatory behavior and removing hiring programs designed to increase workplace diversity if the Justice Department were to be abolished.

In response to queries from Reuters, the Trump team cited a statement released by co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles in December.

“Unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” they stated.

Few policy workers work full-time for the campaign itself. Trump and his staff communicate with outside organizations, such those creating suggestions for the Justice Department, on a regular basis.

The former president’s advisors could have a chance to implement their recommendations because Trump is leading in the majority of battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election in November.

Trump’s vows to restructure the Justice Department are widely known, but what has received less attention is the precise policies that his advisors and allies are pushing.

Two well-known Trump supporters told Reuters they were in favor of getting rid of the FBI’s general counsel, whose approval of an investigation into contacts between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russian officials infuriated Republicans throughout Trump’s 2017–2021 term.

When it comes to ongoing investigations and other issues, FBI staff members receive legal assistance from the general counsel. Closing it, according to several Trump supporters and legal experts familiar with the department’s operations, would limit the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations without close political oversight and force the bureau to receive legal advice from individuals closer to Trump’s attorney general in the chain of command.

According to a statement released by the Biden campaign spokesperson, Ammar Mousa, Trump and his allies “were putting Trump’s own revenge and retribution ahead of what is best for America.” When asked for comment, the FBI did not answer right away.

‘ADVANCED POLITICS’

Trump’s supporters contend that the president ought to have extensive authority to direct and supervise the Justice Department in any way they see fit since they are the head of the executive branch.

That’s a viewpoint rejected by most Democrats and even some Republicans. They claim that because the Justice Department is in charge of enforcing impartial justice, it needs an exceptional degree of independence. This mandate occasionally includes looking into a president’s close political associates.

“There are always enforcement disputes… that is standard politics,” stated Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who currently works for the nonprofit legal advocacy group Protect Democracy.

“What is not standard politics is somebody basically coming in and saying we are going to jettison the idea that the Department of Justice should have a wall of separation between it and the personal political agenda of the president.”

These recommendations are being made by a number of Trump friends who are part of the “Project 2025” consortium of conservative think tanks, which has been developing comprehensive plans for a second Trump presidency. Project 2025 said in a statement to Reuters that it was unable to speak for the Trump campaign.

According to two people with knowledge of those discussions, these friends are also searching via federal regulations for fresh approaches to appoint solid conservatives to the Justice Department at the beginning of a future Trump term.

Several persons involved have recognized that these meticulous preparations stand in stark contrast to Trump’s tumultuous 2016 transition, which featured comparatively little policy planning.

The former president fought with his attorney general and FBI director over the first few months of his first term in office, which infuriated the president since they did not put an end to the investigations into his 2016 campaign.
Several associates who speak with Trump claim that it’s an event he’s resolved not to repeat.

In four criminal proceedings, two of which have been initiated by the Department of Justice, Trump is currently facing 88 accusations in relation to his claimed attempts to rig the 2020 election, his possession of secret documents after leaving office, and his purported attempts to conceal the payment of hush money to a porn star.

The 77-year-old cites the allegations as evidence that the Justice Department is biased against him and disputes any misconduct in any of the instances. The department disputes this and asserts that it carries out each investigation in an unbiased manner.

In a statement on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed his disapproval of “a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department.”

Trump has demanded the arrest of numerous political rivals, despite his claims to be building a neutral legal system. In a post on Truth Social last June, he promised to have an 81-year-old Biden looked into by a “special prosecutor”.

OVERSIGHT OF THE FBI

Some allies refrain from endorsing Trump’s retaliatory language. They do, however, concur that Trump ought to have more authority over the FBI and Justice Department.

“Whenever you have power centers… that are presumed to be independent of any control down the chain of command from the president, and they have enormous resources, coercive power, and investigative tools at their disposal, that is a recipe for abuse of power,” said Steve Bradbury, a former Justice Department official who briefly filled the position of acting Transportation Secretary for Trump.

Bradbury and Gene Hamilton, two senior Justice Department officials under Trump, supported the proposal to remove the FBI’s general counsel in interviews with Reuters.

Although they both contributed ideas to Project 2025, they stated that they do not speak for Trump. One of Trump’s closest policy advisors, Stephen Miller, has Hamilton as a reliable lieutenant. Requirements for comment from Miller were not answered.

Bradbury and Hamilton also supported shifting the FBI director’s reporting line to two politically appointed assistant attorneys general within the Justice Department.

Presently, the director is subordinate to the deputy attorney general, a higher-ranking official who, according to Bradbury, is too busy and has too big of a portfolio to supervise and lead FBI investigations.

According to Bradbury and other legal scholars, changes could be made without the consent of Congress. According to him, these actions are required to guarantee that the enforcement goals of the bureau coincide with the policy preferences of the White House. Opponents claim that these actions will erode the FBI’s and Justice Department’s independence.

Additionally, some of Trump’s advisors and allies want to drastically reduce the range of offenses the FBI can look into, claiming that the agency’s purview is too broad for political appointees to adequately manage.

In July of last year, Bradbury stated in a publicly accessible policy letter that other law enforcement organizations, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, should take the initiative in cases when their purview overlaps with the bureau’s.

Bradbury penned that the bureau’s surviving members could concentrate only on “large-scale crimes and threats to national security” that call for an official federal response.

A person is policy.

Trump’s aides contend that packing the agency with allies who won’t back down from his demands is just as crucial as reorganizing it.

A proposed executive order called “Schedule F” that would allow Trump to appoint conservative supporters to replace thousands of civil servants has received widespread support.

This would enable his administration to increase the Justice Department’s low-hundred-figure number of political appointees; however, friends are at odds over the specific number of jobs that may be filled.

According to multiple people with knowledge of the discussions, some Trump supporters at Project 2025 also wish to increase the application of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, a cryptic law that permits departments to hire outside specialists with the aid of nonprofits.

The union that represents certain Justice Department workers, AFSCME Local 2830, expressed its concerns to Reuters in a statement, saying that they are “concerned that Trump officials will fill positions to further their partisan agenda instead of impartially carrying out federal laws and regulations and upholding the Constitution.”

According to his supporters, Trump will be more equipped to advance conservative policy objectives if the proper individuals and organizational structure are in place. Many of the suggestions put out by his allies are generally related to the way the federal government enforces civil rights laws.

For example, Hamilton contended that the Justice Department need to investigate whether companies that implement initiatives aimed at increasing the proportion of people of color in the workforce are discriminating against White people.

He said that the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids hiring or salary choices based on “race” or “sex,” may serve as the department’s source of authority.

Hamilton also demanded a drastic reduction in the Justice Department’s use of “consent decrees,” which are court-monitored agreements between local police agencies and the Justice Department that help stop civil rights violations against persons of color, the disabled, and the mentally ill.

Conservatives characterize these accords as overbearing government initiatives that impede local law enforcement’s efforts to combat crime. Such arguments, according to rights advocates, ignore centuries’ worth of verified injustices.

According to Christy Lopez, a professor at Georgetown University and former official in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the department scaled back its efforts on police accountability throughout President Trump’s first term.

“There’s no reason to believe that his administration won’t double down,” she added.