Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo setting up a new ‘Weaponization Working Group’ and sent a warning flare to DOJ attorneys immediately after President Trump said welcomed her to the Oval Office and vouched she’d be impartial.
Bondi, the former Florida AG, was confirmed as AG by a 54-46 vote in the Senate Tuesday, took the oath inside the Oval Office Wednesday morning.
The president put on a display for the event, with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas presiding and Trump predicting she’ll go down as the most successful attorney general in history.
‘She’s going to restore fair, equal and impartial justice,’ Trump said.
‘I know I’m supposed to say she’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be,’ Trump said.
He also said of Bondi was ‘unbelievably fair and unbelievably good.’
One Bondi directive on ‘zealous advocacy’ will call for ‘aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges.’
It also foreswears latitude for ‘personal political views,’ according to the memo, which was obtained by Fox News.
‘The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,’ according to the memo.
The text also includes an explicit threat, stating that ‘any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.’
The memo comes after Bondi faced questions during her confirmation hearing about whether she would probe Trump nemesis former special counsel Jack Smith, who Trump has repeatedly called ‘deranged.’
‘I haven’t seen the file. I haven’t seen the investigation. I haven’t looked at anything,’ she told California Sen. Adam Schiff, who faced off against Bondi when he was a House impeachment manager and Bondi was representing Trump.
‘It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment,’ she said. ‘I will look at the facts and evidence.’
Last week acting Attorney General James McHenry moved to fire more than a dozen DOJ officials who worked on the criminal cases that Smith oversaw against Trump. All Trump’s criminal cases, including the classified documents case and D.C. January 6 cases overseen by Trump, fell apart after he won the November election.
Trump, who fired former FBI Director James Comey and clashed with AGs Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr at times during his first term, is keenly aware of the power of the agency, and has himself railed against what he calls ‘weaponization’ of the department.
‘I just want to introduce her very, very handsome husband. I hate being around him. He looks too good,’ Trump said at the swearing-in. ‘And mother, look how good you look, huh? So I just wanted to introduce them.’