Trump enemies face uncertainty with Bondi Justice Department

president-elect donald trumpthe decision to nominate Pamela Bondi to lead the Justice The department sparked a wave of speculation about whether it would open investigations into Trump’s political enemies.

Trump repeatedly called for the investigation and arrest of his top political enemies during the election campaign, and Bondi unequivocally reiterated those calls last year. While Trump’s base has enthusiastically applauded the notion of retaliation, he has sent mixed signals since his election about how his administration might proceed.

Installing Bondi and some of his fiercest legal defenders, such as FBI director nominee Kash Patel, could have set off alarm bells among Trump’s targets. They include former Rep. Liz Cheney, who served on the committee that investigated Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal prosecutions against him that Republicans widely denounced as unfair. . The president-elect called for both to be arrested, while Bondi said last year that “bad” prosecutors and investigators would be lucky to turn the tables on them.

“The prosecutors, the bad ones, will be prosecuted,” Bondi had said. “Investigators will be investigated because the deep state, President Trump’s last term, was hiding in the shadows, but now they have the spotlight on them.”

The rise of Bondi

Bondi, 59, had a successful career as a state attorney in Hillsborough County, Florida, including as the county’s top cop, for nearly two decades before ascending to state attorney general in 2011.

She began developing loyalty toward Trump, a resident of her state, after endorsing him against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) the day before the 2016 primary. She worked on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial and supported some of his claims about voter fraud in 2020. News of his nomination, following the failed nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, was well received largely from the Senate Republican conference.

Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School who worked on the impeachment defense team with Bondi, described her as “extremely intelligent” with an “incredible ability to understand the legal system in the context of politics.”

He said he didn’t believe Bondi was interested in getting back at Trump’s prosecutors and investigators.

“That’s not her at all,” Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner. “She is a very nice person. In addition to her great skills as a lawyer, she is a really nice person. She treats people well. … I just really like him as a human being.”

Some of the loudest voices in Trump’s base, such as war room Podcast host Steve Bannon and Article III Project founder Mike Davis have outlined high expectations for judicial retaliation against people like Cheney, Smith, judges in the Trump cases, and even lawyers whose names are less well-known.

As recently as this week, Davis warned U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who has led the prosecution of nearly 1,600 defendants connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, that “justice is coming.”

“Attorney above, Matthew Graves and his @USAO_DC prosecutors and agents from January 6,” Davis wrote in X. “No one is above the law.”

However, after winning the election, Trump himself has tempered expectations of going after people he had previously aggressively accused of weaponizing their authority for political purposes. Trump promised during a recent Meet the press interview, for example, that he would not order the Justice Department and the FBI to go after Cheney or anyone else who served on the January 6 committee.

Deep State ‘Criminals’

Patel, Trump’s pick to be the Justice Department’s chief investigator as head of the FBI, has made more controversial suggestions for department reform that could make his Senate confirmation process more difficult than Bondi’s.

Before his nomination, Patel talked a lot about going after those who have betrayed Trump politically. He identified in his book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy members of the deep state who, according to him, were “criminals.” The list included dozens of prominent Democrats, Republicans who have fallen out of favor with Trump and other current and former agency officials.

When asked for comment on Patel’s plans, Trump transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner that Patel would not persecute “law-abiding” citizens.

“Kash Patel is going to end the use of guns as weapons by law enforcement,” Pfeiffer said. “The FBI will focus on crime, not law-abiding individuals, with Kash leading the bureau.”

Parallel investigations

One of Trump’s top allies in the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), does not believe Trump’s Justice Department will attempt to punish those who accused Trump of serious crimes, filed civil lawsuits in his against, issued unfavorable court orders against you or otherwise brought legal complications into your life.

“Chairman Jordan has been clear that President Trump and the Republican Party do not favor political prosecutions,” a Judiciary Committee spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We are in favor of defending the rule of law, securing the border and fixing the mess that the Biden administration caused these last four years.”

Meanwhile, Jordan and his incoming counterpart on the Senate committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), could be the ones to appease the faction of Trump supporters who are thirsty to see Trump’s prosecutors and his supporters suffer. for persecuting their elected leader. Both have sent recent preservation notices to the Justice Department, citing concerns that it is politically biased. Their oversight investigations could put prosecutors, especially Smith, in the spotlight and force them to testify. Congressional investigations rarely lead to federal prosecutions.

Grassley told the Washington Examiner that his committee’s first step with Trump’s nominations will be to process Bondi’s confirmation in January and then begin compiling responses on dozens of pending requests he has made to the department.

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“From an oversight perspective, I will work hard to ensure that the Department of Justice responds to the more than 100 pending investigations that I am awaiting, so that the American people can get answers,” Grassley said.

Grassley has a folder full of all of these requests that he showed Bondi and Patel during his recent meetings with them, an aide said.