'Optics are not good': Trump officials flagged over Jan. 6 roles — on both sides

Some officials tasked with purging the Justice Department of individuals involved in Jan. 6 investigations actually played a role in that day's events themselves, according to a report.

Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove has led a purge of FBI agents and officials who took part in those cases — despite helping those same investigators when he headed the counterterrorism unit in the U.S. attorney’s office for New York’s southern district at the time of the Capitol riot, reported CNN.

Some other Donald Trump appointees are also playing dual roles, according to the report.

“There is a reason that the legal ethics codes and the conflict-of-interest rules don’t contemplate this specific scenario, and that is because this specific scenario could have never been imagined until it became our reality,” said James Sample, a law professor at Hofstra University.

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Legal experts say those senior officials might not be required to recuse themselves from investigating Trump prosecutors after defending him in those same cases, but they said it creates, at the very least, the appearance of conflict of interest.

"Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general, defended the president in three of his four criminal cases. And John Sauer, who won the presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court, was chosen for the role of solicitor general," CNN reported. "And while Attorney General Pam Bondi never represented Trump in court, she defended the president during his first Senate impeachment trial and was one of a number of pro-Trump lawyers who signed on to an amicus brief with the federal appeals court on the Trump classified documents case."

Trump appointed former "Stop the Steal" activist Ed Martin as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and he hasn't recused himself from Jan. 6 probes despite being listed as an attorney for several of those defendants, and despite claiming that he hasn't been involved with any of them for 18 months.

That dual role raised ethical questions.

“Whether one categorizes it as a formal ethical violation or as an astounding abuse of discretion and a betrayal of traditional norms, the optics are not good,” Sample said. “The question with optics these days becomes does anyone who can do anything about it care? And, if so, what can they really do?”

Trump's lawyers were furious about the two cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, and Justice Department officials were worried they'll investigate or prosecute people who took part in those prosecutions, particularly Jay Bratt, a former national security prosecutor who led the classified documents case even before Smith was appointed, sources told CNN.

"Trump’s legal team believed Bratt – and former attorney general Merrick Garland – didn’t afford the respect they should have to Trump as a former president, sources said," according to CNN. "Garland insisted Trump be treated like any other criminal defendant."

Trump's criminal defense lawyers developed a deep distrust for the Justice Department they're now serving or leading, and that comes across in their interactions inside the government.

“They don’t even introduce themselves," said one senior DOJ official.