Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision to create what she is calling a "Weaponization Working Group" within the Department of Justice received a massive thumb-down from a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York who called it both unnecessary and highly problematic due to her proposed appointees.
In his column for the conservative National Review, Andrew McCarthy suggested the new AG is setting herself up for an avalanche of controversy based upon potential charges of unethical legal behavior and conflict of interest.
According to the longtime conservative columnist, there is no reason on earth why the DOJ needs such a working group, explaining, "When you take an ill-conceived action for the wrong reasons, unforced errors are inevitable," which he claimed will provide fodder for the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to focus more scrutiny of Trump DOJ appointee Todd Blanche than he is already under.
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That led him to note that Bondi will head up the group with Blanche, embattled Emil Bove and controversial interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin working with her -- all of them former Donald Trump lawyers or tied to his "Stop the Steal" efforts.
That, he pointed out, will create a "ticking ethics time bomb."
After pointing out, "Blanche and Bove should be recused from any Justice Department inquiries arising out of the prosecutions of Trump," he added, "The problem for Blanche and Bove is the well-known ethical rules that bind members of the legal profession."
As he notes, their relationship with Trump means they "have a continuing duty to avoid taking positions detrimental to the interests of Trump" while at the same time, as incoming DOJ employees, they also have a duty to the government to present "a defense of the Justice Department’s conduct — in its prosecutions of Trump and its cooperation with state prosecutors in their cases against Trump."
He elaborated, "Consequently, Blanche and Bove must not represent the government in an investigation in which their duty to the Justice Department is adverse to their duty to Trump," adding it would constitute, a conflict of interest that is strictly prohibited by federal law.
"It could not be clearer," he explained, " ... that Blanche and Bove cannot properly participate as Justice Department prosecutors in any matter focused on Trump’s conduct and Trump’s treatment by Justice Department prosecutors while Blanche and Bove were representing Trump as defense lawyers."
He then advised, "Under the circumstances, AG Bondi should be trying to wall off Bove, Blanche, and another Trump private lawyer, D. John Sauer (nominated to be solicitor general) from scenarios in which they’re vulnerable to being accused of ethical missteps. The weaponization directive does the opposite."
