Bondi Vows To Hold Former Officials Accountable For 'Government Weaponization'
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a recent interview that she will continue to investigate officials in the Obama and Biden administrations over “government weaponization” after courts tossed federal charges against two high-profile figures.
“At my direction, our U.S. Attorneys and federal agents are actively investigating instances of government weaponization nationwide,” Bondi told Just the News in writing in an interview released on Sunday. “This is a ten-year stain on the country committed by high-ranking officials against the American people.”
Bondi then credited President Donald Trump for allowing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to fix what she described as “damage” done to the agency as well as the FBI under previous administrations, saying they used “legal process and operations that were excessive.”
“They went so far as to serve search warrants that their own Department and law enforcement officials believed were excessive,” she said.
Her comments appeared to be in reference to evidence showing that some FBI agents did not believe the DOJ had enough evidence to establish probable cause in their search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in 2022. Trump was later charged with illegally retaining classified materials before the case was dropped.
Evidence from the DOJ “illustrates that the FBI shielded political figures” under the Biden and Obama administrations “while pursuing conservatives for their beliefs” instead of “protecting Americans from public safety threats,” she told the outlet.
Under Bondi, federal prosecutors have brought cases against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former White House adviser John Bolton. The cases against Comey and James have since been thrown out in court, although the DOJ has sought to revive them.
Democratic critics of the administration have said that the Trump administration is using arguments about the weaponization of the federal government as a means to target Trump’s political enemies.
As an example, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in September that the indictment against Comey, which was on charges of making a false statement related to testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, amounted to “malicious prosecution” that has no “basis in law or fact.”
Trump and conservatives have said the DOJ should be more aggressive in prosecuting former officials for various alleged crimes.
Bondi said her “Department of Justice takes government weaponization seriously.”
“That means protecting civil liberties, preventing election interference, and holding bad actors accountable. No one is above the law, even if they think they are,” she said.
Bondi also referred to a letter sent by attorneys of former CIA Director John Brennan, who currently works as an analyst for MSNBC, regarding subpoenas in a grand jury investigation.
“Public reports of a recent letter sent to Cecilia M. Altonaga, the chief judge of the Federal District of Florida, by John Brennan’s defense attorneys, seeking judicial intervention in any legitimate grand jury investigation by the executive branch, shows these bad actors are clearly concerned about their liability and want to preserve a two-tiered justice system: one for them and one for everyone else.
“No more,” she said.