How Trump and Bondi transformed the Justice Department to push his agenda and defy critics

After confirming her appointment, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Justice Department lawyers that their mission is to “promote, protect and zealously defend” the policies of the United States as set by the president. It was an example of how the Trump administration has sought to turn the Justice Department into the president’s tool to advance his agenda and challenge critics. Reported by Ali Rogin.

Amna Nawaz:

Shortly after her appointment was confirmed, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Justice Department lawyers that their mission was, in her words, “to promote, protect, and zealously defend the policies of the United States as defined by the President.”

It was an early example of the ways in which the Trump administration has sought to turn the Justice Department into the president’s tool to advance his agenda and challenge critics.

Justice correspondent Ali Rogin and the News Hour political team review the events of the past year to better understand how this shift occurred.

And Ali joins me now.

So, Ali, we know that a big part of this story is the number of lawyers who left the Department of Justice. What did you find?

Ali Rogin:

Yes Amna, since last January, the Ministry of Justice’s workforce has decreased by approximately 8 percent, representing approximately 9,000 employees. About a fifth of these were people who had accepted DOGE’s offer at the beginning of the administration to retire or leave.

But if you look at this graph of total employment changes at the Department of Justice by fiscal year, they’re usually not that drastic. They increase a little one year, and decrease a little the next year. But then, in fiscal year 2025, there’s a big decline.

Amna Nawaz:

So what should we understand about it? Why do people leave?

Ali Rogin:

Yes, I’ve spoken with a number of lawyers who served in Democratic and Republican administrations, many of them including the first Trump administration.

They say it’s normal for policy priorities at the Justice Department to change, depending on who’s in office and which party. This is even what was done in the first Trump administration. But they say it’s very different this time, and Attorney General Bondy appears to be taking direction directly from President Trump.

These lawyers have many different reasons for leaving. Some of them were motivated by the dismissal of some prosecutors who worked on the January 6 cases. Others left after Kelmar Abrego Garcia’s trial, after he was wrongly deported. Some lawyers have resigned in response to the Justice Department’s laissez-faire approach to immigration proceedings seen across the country.

In Minnesota, a group of lawyers resigned after the Justice Department declined to prosecute the ICE agent who shot and killed Rene Judd. Also, Amna, we have seen the Ministry of Justice destroy or remove entire offices.

Amna Nawaz:

What does all this mean for the work of the Department of Justice and its ability to investigate and prosecute cases?

Ali Rogin:

Well, one of the things it means is that lawyers are becoming more overworked and people are trying cases in which they have little or no experience in the subject matter.

In fact, in Minnesota, one of the prosecutors who resigned was actually leading several of the social services fraud cases that initially brought that state to the attention of the Trump administration. The other criterion I track is the failure to return indictments to grand juries.

The standards for returning indictments are relatively low. They have to find the probable cause of the crime occurring. It does not require consensus. Safe, there’s a saying here that you can charge a ham sandwich. For this reason, in recent years the Ministry of Justice has followed up more than 100,000 cases.

In most years for which we have data, they have only failed to obtain a false bill, known as failure to charge, in a small number of cases.

But at the Justice Department, one official, a former official, told me, there are a shockingly high number of no real bills, and notable cases include two failed attempts to impeach New York Attorney General Letitia James, the case against the so-called Sandwich Man involving a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent, and, most recently, last week, six lawmakers who recorded a video saying that service members don’t have to obey illegal orders from the president.

Amna Nawaz:

What are we hearing and seeing in the meantime from leaders within the Ministry of Justice? We have seen allegations of retaliation. Are we witnessing this action?

Ali Rogin:

We hear some of it.

In November, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said there was a war against judges. The Justice Department is also reportedly trying to remove judges it considers obstructive. To illustrate, since 1803, there have been 15 judges impeached, eight of which resulted in conviction and removal.

The Justice Department also took the unusual step of overriding some judges’ selections of people to serve as U.S. attorneys if no one has been confirmed to those positions by the Senate. This happened in New Jersey, where the judges chose the prosecutor. The Justice Department overruled them and appointed Trump’s personal attorney, Alina Haba.

Or recently in New York, where judges appointed a veteran prosecutor. A few hours later, Todd Blanche tweeted that the man had been fired.

Amna, we have contacted the Ministry of Justice with a list of questions about all of this. They haven’t responded yet, but we’ll update if they do.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, this is our justice correspondent, Ali Rogin.

Ali, thank you.

Ali Rogin:

You bet.