By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi plans to sign a directive on Wednesday, her first day in office, that could allow Justice Department lawyers to be fired if they refuse to advance legal arguments on behalf of President Donald Trump’s administration, Fox News reported.
The memo, which Fox News said it obtained, states that “any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.”
The directive comes as Trump appointees have moved quickly to assert control over the Justice Department, firing or reassigning dozens of career lawyers, and align it with Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Bondi also plans to launch an effort to review the state and federal criminal prosecutions brought against Trump while he was out of office, according to Fox News. Trump already signed an executive order tasking her with investigating instances of alleged “weaponization” of government during the proceeding Biden administration.
Bondi, a loyal Trump defender, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday night and sworn in at the White House on Wednesday.
“I know I’m supposed to say she’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,” Trump, a Republican, said ahead of her swearing in. “And I think she will be as impartial as a person can be.”
The Justice Department is responsible for defending administration policies and government officials against legal challenges. Department lawyers are already defending Trump executive orders against scores of lawsuits.
Trump allies have complained that career lawyers stymied his agenda in the first term, in some cases refusing to follow through on legal actions they felt were unjustified.
One Trump ally, Mark Paoletta, posted on social media that career lawyers resisted filing a lawsuit over admissions practices at Yale University during Trump’s first term. Sally Yates, a senior department official appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, refused to defend Trump’s travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries in 2017.
Justice Department lawyers do not have “latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,” Bondi’s memo states, according to the Fox News report.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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