Trump’s Justice Department faces a new era of scrutiny under a Democratic-led
WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has functioned for nearly two years as an extension of the White House, unchecked by a Republican-controlled Congress as it pursued investigations into President Donald Trump’s enemies, fired waves of career employees and defended administration stances that judges across the country repeatedly deemed legally dubious.
Now, sweeping Democratic gains in Congress have shifted the balance of power in Washington, teeing up an onslaught of expected investigations into those actions and others as well as scrutiny from the majority party that the current Justice until now managed to skirt.
The department has, at least publicly, appeared unbowed by the altered landscape.
Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department will cooperate with Congress but has also insisted that “we will not back down” from the Republican president’s agenda. Meanwhile, a top aide told prosecutors on a call to prepare to be on “wartime” footing and a U.S. attorney publicly warned a top Democrat about planned congressional investigations.
It sets the stage for a pugilistic dynamic as Democrats promise to join already-skeptical courts in reining in the Trump administration while a Justice Department depleted by the losses of thousands career employees and the postelection departures of senior leaders pledges to push ahead with its agenda.
A call for a ‘wartime’ footing
Even though Democrats hold the gavel, they’re short on foolproof ways to guarantee Republican cooperation. Lawsuits can take years, subpoenas can be arduous to enforce and criminal contempt referrals for noncompliance would be sent to the Trump administration Justice Department, where they will almost certainly not be acted on.Nonetheless, Democrats are eager to highlight what they view as abuses of power, including a succession of investigations the department has launched into the president’s perceived adversaries, many of which have been rejected by grand juries, dismissed by judges or have otherwise stalled without apparent progress.
In just the eventful weeks leading up to the election, the department unsuccessfully sought an indictment against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, accelerated an investigation into Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, employed an unusual maneuver to file a fresh criminal case against former FBI DirectorPolitical pressure from the White House is unlikely to wane given the promotion of Stephen Miller, a devoted Trump loyalist, to chief of staff.
And Justice Department leadership has suggested it won’t let Democrats’ threats of investigations deter its pursuit of the White House’s priorities, and may become even more aggressive in pressing the president’s causes.Any additional U.S. attorney departures would be on top of a string of significant departures in the days after the election, when the Senate-confirmed leaders of the department’s National Security, Civil and Civil Rights divisions all announced their resignations. The divisions will have temporary leaders but are unlikely to get Senate-confirmed ones in light of the Democratic majority.
“What that means for DOJ, potentially, is just a lot of inaction, with tough decisions not being made because typically those tough decisions are made by confirmed people at the top of the components,” said Greg Brower, a former U.S. attorney in Nevada during President George W. On the rare occasion when the department did appear fazed by congressional oversight, it was generally because of Republican resistance, including over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files or an ultimately abandoned fund to compensate Trump allies.
The Democrats’ planned inquiries have already invited opposition from Republicans and the White House, with Trump accusing Democrats of “extortion” and ordering the attorney general to conduct an investigation.
The White House has issued a warning on expected investigations, asserting in a letter from counsel Will Scharf that such inquiries — a routine function of Congress — may
“We will not back down. This will not slow us down. This will not stop us,” Blanche said in a Fox News interview Monday. “President Trump has two years remaining in this administration and you better believe that we’re going to use it effectively.”