WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have given a “green light to would-be lawbreakers” by gutting the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and folding one of the FBI’s public corruption squads, a group of congressional Democrats wrote in a letter Thursday.
“DOJ’s refusal to enforce anti-corruption laws betrays the public trust and will create lasting harm to Americans’ faith in the integrity of government officials,” Democrats wrote in their letter to Bondi and Patel, which was first obtained by NBC News.
The lawmakers said that the changes made by Bondi and Patel are coming in the “midst of an unprecedented wave of corruption in the Trump Administration,” citing, among other issues, President Donald Trump’s involvement with cryptocurrency, his acceptance of a luxury jet from a foreign government to use as a new Air Force One and pardons he issued to donors.
“This is just part of the Trump Administration’s creation of a two-tiered system of justice—one for large corporations and President Trump’s wealthy friends, and another for everyone else,” the letter states.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., are leading the probe into the changes at the Justice Department and FBI. Eight other senators and more than 50 members of the House signed the letter.
The lawmakers request that Bondi and Patel answer a series of questions about the role of the Public Integrity Section and the FBI’s public corruption efforts to address their “grave concerns.”
The letter comes as the Trump administration has publicized criminal referrals and the initial steps of investigations into Democrats and Trump opponents, contradicting many of the rules and norms that have been in place to avoid federal law enforcement being politicized.
Meanwhile, under an order from Trump, the head of the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group” has said he’ll “name” and “shame” individuals who won’t be criminally charged, a major departure for DOJ, which has traditionally, in the post-Watergate era, aimed to speak only through criminal charges and avoid hurting the reputation of uncharged individuals.
Representatives of the Justice Department and FBI declined to comment on the letter.
A former member of the Public Integrity Section, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from the Trump administration, said that the unit has gone through a “slow and painful demise” and is “currently a shell of its former self, once home to some of the most elite and talented attorneys in the department.”
With only a handful of employees in what had been a unit with 30 attorneys, those left are “operating in the dark,” the person said, adding that it was “clear ... that pursuing public corruption cases in an even-handed, methodical fashion nationwide is no longer an administration priority.”
Americans should be worried that the Justice Department is now allowing “politically appointed and motivated U.S. attorneys” who seek to “please the president by weaponizing the department against his perceived political enemies” and are “pursuing that goal aggressively and, more often than not, without regard for the facts, law or precedent,” the former Public Integrity Section employee said.
“Everyone should be scared of what that will mean for the country moving forward — never-ending cycles of revenge via grand jury investigation and possible indictment,” the person said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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