#department-of-justice

#department-of-justice

It began on the first day of his second term, with instructions to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to end the "weaponisation" of prosecutorial power. But with those first strokes of his pen, President Donald Trump instead launched a year of dramatic changes to the Justice Department, the government body responsible for enforcing federal law in the United States. Traditionally, the Department of Justice has cultivated an aura of "prosecutorial independence".

Axios has learned the White House has begun managing the DOJ's account on X, Axios reported in its Christmas Eve morning newsletter. The account is taking a sharper tone with a more rapid-response campaign edge. It's unclear when the White House first took over the account, but a post by the Department of Justice announcing the latest Epstein files' release on Tuesday was quick to absolve the president of any wrongdoing.

Kim Kardashian is trying to enter the legal profession without a law school education. The bar exam is a deeply flawed and largely unnecessary test, but the best case for having some kind of licensing exam is to make sure anyone taking an alternative path to a law license meets the minimum requirements for a lawyer.

A federal judge in New York scolded the Department of Justice over its treatment of victims while ordering the release of grand jury materials tied to Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell on Tuesday. The motion to unlock the files was submitted last month by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who asked the judge to move quickly with a ruling before the deadline imposed by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The congressional representatives have written a letter expressing their concerns to Attorney General Pam Bondi, and a coalition of activists has filed a federal lawsuit seeking the restoration of the Community Relations Service, an agency within the DOJ that has provided conflict resolution services around the nation since it was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Community Relations Service staff has been reduced to one.

The Republicans' plan to gerrymander their way to holding on to the House took a blow this week when a three-judge panel struck down Texas's new congressional redistricting map. The map, ordered by President Trump, sought to create five additional congressional seats for the GOP. US District Judge Jeffery Brown-a hardcore Republican appointed by Trump-struck down the map on the grounds that it was racially gerrymandered.

On CNN's The Arena With Kasie Hunt, conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg took the first at-bat reacting to the report. Goldberg called it weird politics and submitted that it shows you what a different time we're in that this is even being considered, especially given the ongoing government shutdown and other corruption allegations against Trump. Then the Times Lulu Garcia-Navarro noted that the cash Trump was seeking was taxpayer money that would be going into the president's pocketbook.