Don’t Mistake Bondi’s Ouster for Accountability

President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday and installed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also his former personal defense attorney — as the acting head of the Justice Department.

We still need answers about Bondi’s tenure at the DOJ, including her handling of the DOJ’s review of federal records related to Jeffrey Epstein. We’re fighting in court for records of how the DOJ and FBI reviewed and handled the Epstein files, which could tell us if Bondi told staff to flag mentions of Trump.

Throughout Bondi’s tenure, “she worked tirelessly to pervert the department’s mission and to wield its authority in service of President Trump’s political ambitions and personal vendettas,” said our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. We’re worried that Blanche will continue this troubling legacy. 

In his confirmation hearing to be Deputy Attorney General, Blanche said that his prior role as Trump’s defense attorney meant that he has a “continuing duty” of loyalty to Trump. But the attorney general should be loyal to the Constitution — not their boss. Blanche is also a key person involved in deciding what presidential records from Trump’s first administration are eligible for release under the Presidential Records Act (PRA). In January, we called on Blanche to step aside from this role because his pledge of fealty to Trump compromised the integrity of the process. We also filed FOIA requests to investigate how Blanche and others conduct the review and release these records. 

Now, Blanche will have even more power to undermine accountability at DOJ. This is especially alarming because the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel just claimed that the PRA is unconstitutional and that Trump does not have to follow the law — effectively shielding the second Trump administration’s records from public disclosure. This “is a permission slip to hide evidence of corruption, abuse of power, and misconduct from the public,” warned Chukwu.

Uncovering the Trump administration’s violent anti-protester rhetoric 

Last June, Trump illegally deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles in an effort to suppress protests against his administration’s immigration raids.

Records we obtained, reported on by the LA Times, show that Joseph Mazzara, then the acting general counsel for DHS, suggested the troops should have “just started hitting” the protesters. “No one likes being hit by a stick, and people tend to run when that starts happening in earnest,” he wrote. He also suggested that the troops deployed to Los Angeles should have arrested “everyone that couldn’t get away.” This reinforces concerns about how senior legal officials viewed both protest activity and the appropriate use of force.

We notably obtained two versions of the records. In one, Mazzara’s comments are fully redacted. In the other, DHS appears to have attempted but failed to redact the remarks. By intending to redact this statement, it appears that DHS was improperly trying to hide Mazzara’s views toward assaulting protesters from the public. 

On the records

ICE detention has surged under Trump. Here’s how we’re using FOIA to investigate.

In the first year of the second Trump administration, the number of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention grew by more than 80 percent, to surpass 70,000 people. To detain more people, ICE is expanding its detention capacity. We’re using FOIA to investigate detention facilities and the conditions people face there.

ICE has started using military bases as detention centers, even though some reportedly lack safe food and water. We filed a FOIA request for inspection reports and complaints about conditions in converted military bases.

ICE has also been converting warehouses into detention facilities. While DHS reportedly paused plans to buy more warehouses this week, senior officials said the decision may only be temporary. We filed FOIA requests for information that could show whether these facilities are fit for humans to live in, including planning documents, talking points, and related communications.

American Oversight in the news

• DHS attorney said agents in Los Angeles should have ‘started hitting’ protesters, emails show (Los Angeles Times)
• Trump official says federal agents should hit anti-ICE protesters (Newsweek)
• A disappearing data chronology (National Security Archive)

Other stories we’re following

• Trump’s Justice Department dropped 23,000 criminal investigations in shift to immigration (ProPublica)
• Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move already facing lawsuit threats (Associated Press)
• As DOJ prepares to share state voter data with DHS, a key privacy officer resigns (NPR)
• Spanberger orders Virginia’s return to ERIC voter data partnership (VPM)