Trump shakes up Justice Department he accused of 'weaponization'

by Chris Lefkow

Abrupt firings, senior officials demoted, and career employees left reeling -- US President Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to a Justice Department he accuses of unjustly prosecuting him.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump, resigned before the Republican could fulfill his campaign pledge to fire him, but more than a dozen members of his team were sacked on Monday.

Across the Justice Department a number of high-ranking officials have been demoted or reassigned in moves by the new administration that have unsettled career employees.

A Justice Department official said those fired had played a "significant role" in Trump's prosecution and acting attorney general James McHenry did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda."

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Smith charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

Neither case came to trial and the special counsel -- in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president -- dropped them both after Trump won the November presidential election.

McHenry was appointed by Trump to head the Justice Department until his nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is confirmed by the Senate.

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, defended Trump at his first impeachment trial and is one of several personal lawyers the real estate tycoon has named to key Justice Department posts.

Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, Trump's attorneys in his hush money trial in New York and his two federal cases, were named to the second- and third-ranking jobs in the Justice Department.

- 'Personal law office' -

Steven Schwinn, a constitutional law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, said Trump's stacking of the department's leadership with loyalists raises "significant concerns" for its traditional independence from the White House.

"There's nothing in the Constitution that requires or mandates an independent Department of Justice," Schwinn said. "But historically speaking, Congress and the president have both recognized that some measure of independence from the White House is critical."

"Trump treated the Justice Department in his first term as if it were his personal law office," Schwinn said, and has installed individuals this time who will seemingly "bend to his will and do his bidding."

Asha Rangappa, an ex-FBI agent and former Yale Law School associate dean, also noted that "nothing prevents -- legally -- the president from actually controlling investigations."

But that firewall between the White House and Justice Department has historically been respected and Trump has been the first president since Richard Nixon to "breach that norm," Rangappa added.

- 'Unfair weaponization' -

In his inauguration speech, Trump, the first former president to be convicted of a crime, vowed to end the "vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department."

In a subsequent interview, however, Trump said he "went through four years of hell" and "it's really hard to say that they shouldn't have to go through it also."

Bondi, at her confirmation hearing, said that "the Justice Department must be independent" and that she will "not target people just because of their political affiliation."

"There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice," she said.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Trump's actions show otherwise and his nomination of his personal lawyers to top Justice posts shows he "intends to weaponize the Justice Department to seek vengeance."

The personnel shake-up was one of a number of actions taken by Trump during his first week in office that have rocked the Justice Department.

His sweeping pardons of more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, including individuals convicted of violent assaults on police, eviscerated years of work by prosecutors.

Trump also ordered a freeze on all civil rights cases and police reform agreements and threatened to take legal action against state and local officials who fail to cooperate with his immigration crackdown.

Trump additionally tasked the Justice Department with defending his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, a move which met with an immediate rebuke from a federal judge who called it "blatantly unconstitutional."