Attorney General Pam Bondi already has a message for career Justice Department officials: help us defend President Donald Trump's executive policies unflinchingly — or lose your job.
A new memo circulated by Bondi, who previously served as the Attorney General of Florida and defended Trump during his impeachment trial, was flagged by Lawfare's Anna Bower on Wednesday evening.
"The responsibilities of Department of Justice attorneys include not only aggressively enforcing criminal and civil laws enacted by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions against legal challenges on behalf of the United States," wrote Bondi. "The discretion afforded Department attorneys entrusted with those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election."
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"When Department of Justice attorneys, for example, refuse to advance good-faith arguments by declining to appear in court or sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers," Bondi continued. "It is therefore the policy of the Department of Justice that any attorney who because of their personal political views or judgments declines to sign a brief or appear in court, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Department's mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination, consistent with applicable law."
This comes after Bondi's acting predecessor under Trump terminated several career prosecutors who worked under special counsel Jack Smith in Trump's own criminal prosecutions, and then terminated 30 other prosecutors who worked on the Jan. 6 insurrection cases that Trump wiped out with mass clemency to on his first day. The move was highly unusual, as typically the only Justice Department prosecutors replaced under a new administration are the U.S. attorneys heading up federal districts.
Reporting earlier this week indicates Trump himself gave the order to fire many of these prosecutors. Officials working under him reportedly tried to provide cover for it.
