Trump enlists attorney general to investigate Biden administration

Source: The Guardian

Fri 24 Jan 2025 08.00 EST
Last modified on Fri 24 Jan 2025 08.02 EST


Donald Trump has tasked the attorney general in two executive orders to conduct far-reaching investigations into the previous administration, using the weight of the justice department to pursue what are effectively politically charged reviews into his personal grievances. The orders the president signed on Monday to end the “weaponization of the federal government” and the “government censorship of speech” in the Biden administration directed the attorney general to review actions over the last four years and prepare a final report.

Incoming administrations always set their priorities in the first days and Trump’s second term is no different from any of his predecessors in that respect. Trump also signed executive orders instructing the department to bring more criminal cases connected to the southern border. The fact that the investigations will be done outside of the White House means they could be less susceptible to political interference by West Wing aides and leaves open the possibility that the investigative work is conducted in part at least by career attorneys at the justice department.

But the weaponization order was particularly unusual in making the incoming attorney general examine alleged misconduct at the justice department – rather than the department’s office of professional responsibility or inspector general – and then to deliver findings to a political appointee at the White House.

The attorney general does not typically prepare reports for the deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller. Under the justice department’s no-contacts policy, designed to prevent political interference in investigations, the attorney general is only supposed to interact, at a staff level, with the White House counsel or the deputy counsel. Taken together, the various aspects of the weaponization order foreshadow the major role Trump wants the justice department to play in his second term and harness its far-reaching power to enact his agenda.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/24/trump-executive-orders-justice-department