President Trump’s executive order decrying the “weaponization” of the Justice Department instructs his attorney general to scour federal law enforcement agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission for any indications of political bias in work conducted under the Biden administration.
The same executive order instructs the director of national intelligence to conduct a similar review of intelligence agencies. Both reviews will culminate in a report to the White House and recommendations for “remedial action.” The executive order does not give a time frame for the reviews or reports.
The order also makes unclear what type of review will be conducted — an ethics investigation like the kind often undertaken by the Justice Department’s inspector general, or a criminal inquiry mounted by prosecutors. It also leaves vague what it means by the stated goal to “ensure accountability for the previous administration’s weaponization of the Federal government against the American people.”
The executive order, titled “ending the weaponization of the federal government,” begins with a list of misleading accusations against the Biden administration for what Mr. Trump has long claimed to be unfair use of the criminal justice system against him, his supporters and conservatives generally.
The Biden administration “and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” the order continued.
The language of the document suggests — but does not explicitly state — that the Trump administration review will examine the actions of local district attorneys or state officials, such as the district attorneys in Manhattan or Fulton County, Ga., or the New York attorney general, all of whom filed cases against President Trump.
The presidential order accused the Justice Department of “ruthlessly” prosecuting more than 1,500 individuals for charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in the halls of Congress.
