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A Busy First Week At The Trump DOJ


From reassigning Democratic operatives to shutting down the J6 prosecution, the new Department of Justice isn’t wasting any time cleaning house while waiting for Pam Bondi’s Senate confirmation.

Senate Democrats last week put on hold the confirmation process for Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Her full Senate approval appears inevitable but Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee claimed they wanted more time to review her background file. Another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday; a vote to advance her nomination out of the committee is expected later that day.

But if Democrats had hoped postponing Bondi’s confirmation would delay the Trump administration’s carpet bombing of the Department of Justice, they are once again wrong. In fact, Trump’s DOJ is wasting no time reversing the dangerous course set by Joe Biden and Merrick Garland while redirecting resources from the now-closed January 6 prosecution to fight real security threats across the country.

Shortly after the president took the oath of office last Monday, several Trump appointees were sworn in at Main Justice to fill top posts at the department. James McHenry, a longtime immigration lawyer at the DOJ, will serve as acting attorney general until Bondi takes over; the move appears to underscore the president’s plans to prioritize immigration enforcement at the department.

Emil Bove, who represented the president in both the Alvin Bragg case in New York and former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case in Florida, is now the acting deputy attorney general. Bove traveled to Chicago over the weekend to meet with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and other federal law enforcement officials to coordinate mass deportations, which are underway in the Windy City. One official told ABC News that Bove had “personally observe[d] DHS immigration enforcement operations and support[ed] the efforts of FBI, DEA, ATF, USMS, and federal prosecutors who are assisting DHS in this critical mission.”

Other appointments include Omeed Assefi as acting chief of the DOJ’s antitrust division until Trump’s pick, Gail Slater, is confirmed. According to Bloomberg, Assefi sent a video message to the division’s staff last week to pledge an “aggressive stance going forward,” including pursuing investigations and lawsuits against Big Tech—which might explain all the sucking up by Big Tech titans before and on Inauguration Day.

“Can I Take My Swingline Stapler?”

At the same time, notorious political operatives inside the DOJ are getting the Milton from “Office Space” treatment, moved from their cushy role doing the dirty work of the Democratic Party to offices where they might actually get their polished fingernails dirty. George Toscas—a top National Security Division official who looked into the Hillary Clinton email server “matter,” helped initiate the FBI’s surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign, and pushed for the armed raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022—has been reassigned to a newly-created unit at the DOJ to fight efforts by lawless “sanctuary cities” to obstruct deportation plans. Toscas was last seen giving former Attorney General Merrick Garland a bear hug during his grotesque Dear Leader-like march on his last day in office.

Corey Amundson, who as head of the DOJ’s public integrity unit fought hard against an FBI investigation into election fraud in Georgia in 2020, also has a new desk at the immigration unit. At least 20 DOJ employees reportedly have been moved to other positions.

This is all super unfair, according to one former assistant U.S. Attorney. “It has terrified people,” Ashley Akers, a J6 prosecutor who resigned last week, complained to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “It’s not sensical. You have people who are subject matter experts…and to pull them and put them in an unrelated section where they have no experience and probably on interest seems contrary to the mission of the department.”

Depoliticizing the Most Political Agency in the Land

Now Akers might be slightly bitter since her last act in office was undoing her own prosecution of several J6 defendants. Following the president’s full pardon of J6ers, prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office, which handled the unprecedented investigation for four years, were forced to file dismissal motions before D.C. judges. Further, the office has a new chief, Ed Martin, a longtime conservative activist who was sworn in as acting D.C. U.S. Attorney last Monday afternoon. Martin immediately filed a flurry of motions to dismiss J6 indictments and confronted at least one judge attempting to keep in place probation for some of the 14 defendants whose sentences were commuted by the president.

And in a move cheered by J6ers, the DOJ also removed the “Capitol Breach” database from the department’s website. The portal listed the name, case number, charges, outcome, and sentence for every J6er, something defendants considered a scarlet-letter tracking mechanism of sorts to incite more harassment against them.

The DOJ’s targeting of pro-life protesters, arguably the Biden/Garland’s DOJ most vengeful and political use of federal law, also came to an end. New chief of staff Chad Mizelle on Friday sent a memo to the civil rights division strictly curtailing the application of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE ACT; the Biden/Garland DOJ prosecuted at least two dozen pro-life activists under the FACE ACT, resulting in lengthy prison sentences for most including women in their 70s. “President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government and has recently directed all federal departments and agencies to identify and correct the past weaponization of law enforcement. To many Americans, prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act have been the prototypical example of this weaponization. And with good reason,” Mizelle wrote.

Trump also pardoned 23 pro-lifers on the eve of the March for Life; several were immediately released from prison including 76-year-old Joan Bell, who was serving out a 27-month sentence imposed by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an 80-year old federal judge in Washington. (Karma will be a bitch for these evil DC judges.)

More Changes Ahead

Bondi still has her work cut out for her—rooting out bad actors within the department’s whopping 34,000 employee base won’t be easy. She may face headwinds from Senate Republicans afraid to pursue much-needed internal investigations into Jack Smith and his team as well as former DC US Attorney Matthew Graves for bringing vindictive, selective prosecutions against the president and his supporters.

But reform and accountability are already underway. The once-revered Department of Justice suffers a deep public trust deficit following a decade of relentless politically charged lawfare against Republicans. It appears, however, that the right team is in place to restore that public’s trust and return the DOJ to its original crime-fighting mission—something the country desperately needs.

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Justice Restored: Trump’s Mission To Reclaim The DOJ


The Department of Justice is finally being reclaimed from the grips of partisan weaponization. President Trump’s administration, in its second term, is delivering a long-overdue reckoning. Over 20 career officials, entrenched in a culture of bias and selective enforcement, have been sidelined overnight. This isn’t just a shake-up—it’s a war against the corruption that has festered for years under the guise of justice. Trump’s team is not just draining the swamp; they are dismantling it, brick by brick, to restore fairness and accountability to an institution that has betrayed the American people.

The abrupt sidelining of over 20 long-serving DOJ officials marks the death knell of what conservatives rightly decried as the “Merrick Garland Reign of Terror.” For years, Garland’s DOJ symbolized the grotesque transformation of justice into a political weapon, targeting Trump and his allies while coddling Democratic operatives. This two-tiered system eroded trust in one of America’s most critical institutions. But with Trump’s return to the White House, the administration is laser-focused on uprooting this corruption and restoring equal justice under the law.

President Trump’s team has employed an ingenious strategy to bypass bureaucratic roadblocks. Federal regulations shield career employees from reassignment for 120 days after new leadership takes over. However, the Trump administration identified a loophole:

Because Acting Attorney General James McHenry has been with the DOJ for more than 120 days, he is not bound by federal regulations requiring a waiting period before reassigning career employees. If Pam Bondi were confirmed, she would have to wait 120 days to make similar changes. Ironically, Senate Democrats’ delays in confirming Bondi have provided Trump with a unique advantage to expedite the much-needed house-cleaning at the DOJ. McHenry’s tenure as the head of a Justice Department unit focused on immigration enforcement underscores his alignment with Trump’s vision of law and order. By the time Pam Bondi is confirmed the McHenry should have purged the corrupt actors at Justice. Together, this team exemplifies the administration’s unwavering commitment to dismantling the deep state and restoring integrity to the DOJ.

The reshuffling of DOJ leadership is nothing short of revolutionary. Ed Martin, a champion of election integrity and leader in the “Stop the Steal” movement, now holds the position of Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin’s appointment is a clarion call to those who weaponized the legal system against conservatives: their time is up. Martin’s record of defending January 6 defendants and his unwavering stance against abortion and illegal immigration sends a powerful message about the administration’s priorities. Just the other day, when Judge Mehta, at the behest of congressional Democrats, modified Trump’s commutation of eight January 6th political prisoners Martin was on the case filing a motion challenging Judge Mehta’s imposition of release conditions on the commuted sentences of January 6th defendants.

John Durham’s legacy also finds new life in the Eastern District of New York, where his son now leads. Known for his relentless pursuit of criminal networks like MS-13, Durham’s son reflects the administration’s no-nonsense approach to crime and immigration enforcement. In the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon—renowned for prosecuting Sam Bankman-Fried and dismantling sex trafficking rings—brings a pedigree that includes clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon. Her appointment signals a return to principled, results-driven law enforcement.

The FBI, long accused of partisan overreach, is undergoing a seismic transformation. Christopher Wray, whose leadership became synonymous with the politicization of federal law enforcement, has been removed. Paul Abbate has retired. Taking the reins is Tom Ferguson, a former FBI veteran who worked alongside Rep. Jim Jordan to expose the weaponization of government. Ferguson’s disdain for “woke” ideology and socialism underscores his commitment to restoring the FBI’s mission of impartial justice. With these changes, the FBI is finally being returned to the people. Until Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick for FBI Director, is confirmed by the Senate, Ferguson’s leadership ensures the Bureau will remain in good hands, continuing the administration’s efforts to purge corruption and restore accountability.

This is not just a personnel change; it is an existential challenge to the deep state, the network of bureaucratic elites who have long wielded power without accountability. For years, conservatives have watched as these entrenched interests undermined Trump’s presidency and targeted his supporters. The Trump administration’s bold appointments are dismantling this shadowy cabal, replacing it with leaders who prioritize justice over ideology and accountability over partisan gain.

The Trump DOJ overhaul represents a historic correction to years of corruption and abuse. For too long, the Department of Justice and the FBI have been weaponized against conservatives, eroding public trust and undermining the rule of law. Under President Trump’s leadership, the era of unchecked bureaucratic power is coming to a dramatic end. This is not merely a shake-up; it is a reformation, a decisive step toward restoring America’s faith in its institutions. The swamp is being drained, the deep state is being exposed, and justice is finally being reclaimed for the American people. Trump promised to fix the system, and as we witness these changes, one thing is clear: he is delivering.

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Rats Fleeing Sinking DOJ Ship


The scales of justice have a chance to recalibrate following Donald Trump’s resounding victory and the departure of key figures at the Biden/Harris Department of Justice

The New York Times today confirmed Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors plan to resign before Donald Trump takes office in January. In what must have been a painful article to write, Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush, two reliable mouthpieces for the Department of Justice, said Smith’s office is “drawing up its plan for how to end the cases” against the incoming president. It is also unclear whether Smith will file a confidential report summarizing the special counsels’ work, a requirement under the DOJ special counsel rules.

Smith further “finds himself on the defensive,” according to the Times, as House Republicans prepare to investigate the investigators. “Republican lawmakers told Justice Department officials who had worked on the Trump cases to preserve all of their communications for investigators,” Barrett and Thrush wrote. “That is a sure sign that a new balance of power in Washington will make Mr. Smith among those being hunted by congressional investigators and others.”

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Smith’s double-barreled pursuit of Trump—he filed unprecedented federal indictments against the incoming president in Washington for the events of January 6 and in southern Florida related to Trump’s alleged hoarding of national defense secrets—ends with a whisper not a bang, a result the regime media and Democrats in Washington never envisioned. For two years, cable news hosts and self-described “legal experts” hung on Smith’s every move in court, salivating over the vision of the war-crimes prosecutor hauling their longtime nemesis off to the gulag in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit.

Not only did that scenario never come to fruition, Smith himself is now the target of a potential criminal investigation. Representatives James Jordan (R-Ohio) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) sent a letter to Smith last week demanding the preservation of all records; Jordan further indicated during a recent interview that as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he may ask Smith to publicly testify.

That, of course, is a no-brainer. The tight-lipped Smith—who insisted he would do all his talking through court documents, only speaking twice when announcing both indictments—must be forced to explain himself to the American people. It won’t be a pretty sight; in contrast to the confused almost sympathetic Congressional appearance by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2019, Smith instead will lay bare his sense of superiority and air of imperviousness for all the world to see.

All the Way Down the Line

Smith, however, should not testify alone. Jay Bratt, who has been accused of threatening a defense attorney in the classified documents case in an attempt to get his client to flip on Trump among other instances of misconduct, should explain his involvement in the matter from the beginning. Bratt’s tiny fingerprints are all over the bogus case dating back to 2021 when he visited the Biden White House at least twice. Bratt also joined three FBI agents during a voluntary search of Mar-a-Lago in June 2022 for government papers then fought “aggressively,” as one former FBI official described it, behind the scenes to pursue the armed FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.

Bratt, it appears, also plans a hasty exit from the DOJ, where he has served in top positions for decades.

But panic at the DOJ isn’t contained just to the special counsel’s office. Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports that DOJ employees are “terrified” over Trump’s return to the White House; one DOJ attorney told Gerstein the department’s prosecutors “are losing their minds.”

“The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out,” the unnamed attorney told Gerstein.

Savor that sweetness for just a moment

Even rank-and-file prosecutors involved in high-profile January 6 cases appear distraught at the possibility they might be held accountable for their conduct.

From CNN:

“One Justice employee told CNN that people inside the department are ‘safety planning.’ Another told CNN that some are considering whether they should hire lawyers. A third official told CNN that there is a ‘general sense of depression’ among attorneys who worked on legal cases that some Republican lawmakers have spoken out against, saying those attorneys are concerned their years of work will be ‘flushed down the drain.’”

Their fear is justified. In case after case, defense attorneys determined prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence, required under the Brady rule, and violated due process rights of J6 defendants. Prosecutors also systematically misused a post-Enron document-shredding statute to turn otherwise nonviolent protesters into lifelong felons. In June, the Supreme Court concluded the DOJ unlawfully applied 18 USC 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding, in J6 cases but not before hundreds were charged and over 100 sent to prison.

In fact, the entire “Capitol Siege” investigation, as the DOJ calls it, represents an egregious example of selective prosecution since no other group of political protesters in U.S. history has been subjected to the type of federal charges levied against J6ers.

Barbarians at the Gaetz

One can only assume the exodus from the DOJ will accelerate after Trump announced he will nominate Florida Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The nomination appeared to shock even Trump insiders; Gaetz’s name never surfaced as a possible contender.

Gaetz is a Pitbull with a long record of confronting bad actors in the DOJ including FBI Director Christopher Wray. (He also reportedly will resign before he is fired on January 20.) He has been an outspoken defender of J6ers and likely will champion the cause to pardon them next year.

If anyone can chase more rats out of the DOJ, it is Gaetz.

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Merrick Garland’s Last-Minute Push to Corrupt the 2024 Election


While throwing a kitchen-sink J6 case against Trump in Washington, Merrick Garland is sitting on what is expected to be a bombshell DOJ report confirming extensive use of FBI informants in January 6.

Consider the following contrasting scenarios:

Attorney General Merrick Garland is advancing a dead-letter indictment against Donald Trump in Washington related to the events of January 6 with a kitchen-sink 165-page “immunity” motion filled with retread accusations about the former president’s conduct before and on that day. Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to file another document this week in a desperate attempt to advance the January 6 narrative, an issue only of interest to the bloodthirsty base of the Democratic Party.

  • Attorney General Merrick Garland is sitting on a bombshell report expected to reveal the number of FBI confidential human sources, known as informants, involved in January 6. The findings of a years-long internal investigation conducted by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz are contained in a draft report recently submitted to Garland for review; Horowitz told Congress last month he does not expect the report to be released before Election Day.

The dichotomy, of course, represents the latest example of the weaponization of the Justice Department at the same time Garland laughably insists no such thing is happening. While the brazenly political prosecution of Trump continues in the courtroom of Obama-appointee Judge Tanya Chutkan to produce damaging headlines as Americans begin voting for president, Garland refuses to allow the American people to see the biggest missing piece in the J6 puzzle: how many FBI informants participated in the Capitol protest?

Horowitz, for his part, appears to be part of the delay. He told the House Weaponization committee on September 25 that he placed a “pause” on his internal inquiry, which he initiated one week after the Capitol protest, to avoid interfering with a separate, unspecified criminal investigation into January 6.

Some speculated Horowitz was referring to the ongoing prosecution of January 6 protesters—but that didn’t add up since the prosecution continues to this day with new arrests announced each week. A recent filing by Trump’s lawyers in the J6-related case confirmed Horowitz’s office participated in the initial stages of the DOJ’s sprawling investigation into Trump and his associates. Further, roughly a dozen agents with the DOJ IG executed an armed raid of the home of Jeffrey Clark, former assistant associate attorney general under Trump, in June 2022. (Smith dropped Clark as a co-conspirator in the special counsel’s watered down superseding J6 indictment following the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.)

Garland appointed Smith in November 2022, which presumably is when Horowitz restarted the stalled inquiry into January 6. If so, Horowitz and his large team of investigators have had nearly two years in addition to whatever work was conducted prior to the DOJ’s probe of Team Trump to finalize the long-awaited report. (For context, Horowitz took 20 months to investigate and issue his findings on “Crossfire Hurricane,” the DOJ’s unlawful surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign.)

Instead, Horowitz slow-walked the review to ensure the final product would remain under wraps until after the 2024 election; Horowitz also can’t promise the report will be released before Inauguration Day.

A Risk to J6 Narrative and FBI Director Chris Wray

Confirming the use of FBI informants not only destroys the official J6 narrative—an issue central to Kamala Harris’ campaign, which just produced another J6-themed campaign video—but also potentially exposes FBI Director Christopher Wray to perjury charges.

When asked in March 2021 whether he wished the FBI had “infiltrated” so-called militias such as the Proud Boys, Wray intentionally misled the Senate Judiciary Committee about the involvement of FBI informants in those groups before and on January 6. “Any time there’s an attack, especially one this horrific that strikes right at the heart of our system of government…you can be darn tootin’ (laughs) that we are focused very hard on how we can get better sources, better information, better analysis so we can make sure that something like January 6 never (pause for dramatic purposes) happens again,” Wray told Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

Except Wray did have informants in the Proud Boys—and that isn’t a fantasy fabricated by “conspiracy theorists” who believe the government played a key role in provoking the crowd that day. During the 2023 trial of leaders of the Proud Boys, the DOJ admitted (stipulated) that informants indeed “infiltrated” the group. “Between on or around November 3, 2020 and January 6, 202, the FBI maintained at least eight CHSs…who provided reporting that included information on, or regarding, among other matters, the Proud Boys.”

So, why didn’t Wray tell the truth about FBI informants in the Proud Boys and other organizations including the Oath Keepers? Why didn’t Wray explain that the sources did provide intelligence to the bureau and nothing suggested a violent attack was in the works?

Wray’s dodginess on the matter has since morphed into indignation and defiance. During two testy exchanges with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), Wray refused to respond to questions about the possibility that FBI informants “dressed like Trump supporters” were stationed inside the building prior to the first interior breach at 2:12 p.m. that day. But rather than answer—or offer any confirmation in court documents and media reports—Wray resorted to his well-worn defense of the bureau. “If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically no,” Wray told Higgins last year.

But that is only part of the question, and Wray knows it. He also is fully cognizant that the FBI’s evaporating credibility will be permanently torched in the wake of disclosures about the extensive use of informants in what Wray has branded an act of domestic terror.

Now What?

Which brings us back to Garland and Horowitz—and Republicans in Congress.

It’s too late for Republicans to do much more than publicly demand on a daily basis that Garland release the report even though he testified during a June 2024 hearing that the ultimate decision would be in Horowitz’s hands. Accordingly, Republicans also should put Horowitz on the hot seat.

In an October 2 letter to the DOJ, several GOP members of the House Weaponization committee including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned Garland that he would be held accountable if “you or any of your subordinates, associates, deputies, or agents…act to interfere with the release of the report.”

A paper trail undoubtedly exists between Garland and Horowitz; correspondence likely exists between both offices and the special counsel—and perhaps extends all the way to the Biden White House and the Harris campaign. If Republicans want to stop this nearly decade-old practice of the DOJ corrupting national elections against members of their own party, GOP leaders must make good on this latest promise.

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