Revealed: Trump allies' plan to turn FBI into his 'attack dog'
Reuters has released a lengthy report documenting a plan being hatched by President Donald Trump's allies to transform the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into an "attack dog for conservative causes."
The plan would essentially gut the wall of separation that has existed between the DOJ and the White House that was erected in the wake of former President Richard Nixon weaponizing law enforcement agencies against his political opponents.
Essentially, the plan in question contains two parts, sources tell Reuters: "First: flood the Justice Department with stalwart conservatives unlikely to say "no" to controversial orders from the White House" and then "restructure the department so key decisions are concentrated in the hands of administration loyalists rather than career bureaucrats."
More specific initiatives will include eliminating the FBI's general counsel, which enraged Trump during his presidency by approving an inquiry into his 2016 campaign's contacts with Russian government officials.
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Trump ally and convicted criminal Steve Bannon argued to Reuters that simply purging the DOJ of career officials wouldn't be enough, as the department needed to be restructured to answer directly to the president.
"It's not just personnel: you do need to purge the DOJ, but you also need to reform it," he said.
However, some democracy advocates raised alarms about plans to make the nation's top law enforcement agency into a political institution.
"There are always enforcement disputes... that is standard politics," Kristy Parker, a member of the legal advocacy organization Protect Democracy, told Reuters. "What is not standard politics is somebody basically coming in and saying we are going to jettison the idea that the Department of Justice should have a wall of separation between it and the personal political agenda of the president."