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WaPo: Trump Justice Dept. considers removing key check on lawmaker prosecutions
WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/U4r2B ) Trump Justice Dept. considers removing key check on lawmaker prosecutions
The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section is charged with ensuring cases against elected officials are not politically motivated. The Trump administration is considering changing that.
May 17, 2025 at 7:05 p.m. EDT
By Perry Stein
Federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to three people familiar with a proposal delivered to attorneys in the section last week.
Under the proposal, investigators and prosecutors would also not be required to consult with the section’s attorneys during key steps of probes into public officials, altering a long-standing provision in the Justice Department’s manual that outlines how investigations of elected officials should be conducted.
If adopted, the changes would remove a layer of review intended to ensure that cases against public officials are legally sound and not politically motivated. Career prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section guided and signed off on the criminal investigations into alleged corruption by New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) and former Democratic senator Bob Menendez.
/snip/
Attorney General Pam Bondi has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of having weaponized the Justice Department and has vowed to remove politics from the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Since being sworn in, she has closely aligned the department — which traditionally keeps some distance from the White House — with the president, ratcheting up immigration enforcement and refocusing the civil rights division on culture war fights that go beyond traditional conservative causes such as religious freedom.
Federal law enforcement officials arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) at an immigration facility this month, and prosecutors charged him with trespassing. Trump administration officials have warned that three members of Congress from New Jersey — all Democrats — who were at the facility with Baraka could be charged as well.
/snip
The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section is charged with ensuring cases against elected officials are not politically motivated. The Trump administration is considering changing that.
May 17, 2025 at 7:05 p.m. EDT
By Perry Stein
Federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to three people familiar with a proposal delivered to attorneys in the section last week.
Under the proposal, investigators and prosecutors would also not be required to consult with the section’s attorneys during key steps of probes into public officials, altering a long-standing provision in the Justice Department’s manual that outlines how investigations of elected officials should be conducted.
If adopted, the changes would remove a layer of review intended to ensure that cases against public officials are legally sound and not politically motivated. Career prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section guided and signed off on the criminal investigations into alleged corruption by New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) and former Democratic senator Bob Menendez.
/snip/
Attorney General Pam Bondi has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of having weaponized the Justice Department and has vowed to remove politics from the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Since being sworn in, she has closely aligned the department — which traditionally keeps some distance from the White House — with the president, ratcheting up immigration enforcement and refocusing the civil rights division on culture war fights that go beyond traditional conservative causes such as religious freedom.
Federal law enforcement officials arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) at an immigration facility this month, and prosecutors charged him with trespassing. Trump administration officials have warned that three members of Congress from New Jersey — all Democrats — who were at the facility with Baraka could be charged as well.
/snip
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