The Ministry of Justice (DOJ) plans to decentralize the authority of the public integrity section, which deals with cases against civil servants.
An official of the DoJ confirmed that the provisions of the justice manual concerning several sections of the department were being revised, but told the Daily Caller News Foundation on the Public Integrity Section (PIN) had not been taken. Political lawyers and former federal prosecutors who spoke with the DCNF had mixed opinions on the question of whether the role of the spit would be beneficial.
“The purpose of the examination is to ensure that an equal responsibility is held on the ground in the offices of the American lawyer rather than centralizing any authority in PIN,” said the official.
The Washington Post first reported On May 17, invoking people familiar with the proposal, that the DOJ could eliminate a requirement for American lawyers to obtain prosecution against members of the Congress through pine. The section was created In the midst of Watergate in 1976 to manage allegations of misconduct against civil servants.
Former Jack Smith special advisor served As head of public integrity before the Attorney General Merrick Garland selected it to work on Trump surveys. Smith spent millions of people pursuing two cases against Trump who were finally launched after winning the elections.
Several cases treated by the section were finally lost, including those against the former Democratic senator of Caroline North John Edwardsformer republican of Alaska Ted Stevens And the former republican governor Bob McDonnell.
After Stevens sentenced In October 2008 by a Washington jury, DC, on federal corruption, the Doj moved to launch the conviction after discovering the prosecution misconduct by federal prosecutors in Alaska. According to the New York Times.
The head of the minority of the Senate of the time, Mitch McConnell, noted at the time that Stevens would have been re -elected without the verdict of guilt.
“It literally cost us a seat”, he said In April 2009, according to the NYT.
Brendan Sullivan, who was Stevens' defense lawyer, told DCNF that he had no opinion on the modifications proposed to Pin. But he noted that the prosecutors in the case of Stevens were “corrupt in the discovery phase and during the trial of the case”.
The Supreme Court unanimously overturned McDonnell's conviction In 2016 in a case that has narrowed driving can be continued as public corruption.
“Conscientious civil servants organize meetings for voters, contact other officials on their behalf and include them all the time in the events,” said Chief Justice John Roberts wrote In the decision, saying that the government's position “could launch a veil of potential proceedings on these relations”.
The department has lost the case of Edwards when the jury find He not guilty about a charge and illustrated on five other charges of campaign financing.
George Holding, who was appointed federal prosecutor by George W. Bush, stayed during the Obama administration for more than two years to complete the Edwards investigation, according to Politico. After having resigned after Edwards' indictment, he ran for the congress and represented North Carolina as a republican at home for more than a decade.
Washington, DC – May 6: The logo of the Ministry of Justice is posted before the American Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for a press conference at the Ministry of Justice on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo of Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
“For too many years, the Ministry of Justice came out of its headquarters in Washington, DC, – what we call the main justice '' – has injected itself into cases which can be fully managed and capable of the offices of the United States lawyers in the field,” said former federal prosecutor Joseph Moreno to the DCNF. “One is the division of national security, which for years had to be involved at each stage in the manner in any federal question involving terrorism or espionage. Another is the division of civil rights, which was lifted in the 1960s, when the Democratic prosecutors of the South refuse to propose racial discrimination affairs and the main justice had to intervene and do so. “
Moreno said that “main justice” should not work as an “administrative burden, justifying its existence by demanding that cases of public integrity be a quarter-arre by HQ at each stage of the path, from assignment to the summons to the investigation through the trial.”
“The main prosecutors should be pushed to the field to manage their own business, and the United States lawyers should be reliable to continue the wide range of public integrity and other cases that the Senate entrusted them during confirmation,” he continued.
The DoJ launched discussions in March to reduce the size of its public integrity section, reducing it by 30 prosecutors who worked in the section at the end of the Biden administration, the Associated Press reported.
Five lawyers in the section resigned In February after being invited to abandon the accusations of corruption against the New York Democrat mayor, Eric Adams. (Related: the budget proposal could allow Letitia James to use taxpayers' funds for personal legal costs in the Trump administrative inquiry)
Criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor William SHIPLY wrote On X in February that the section “must be cleaned”.
“There is a coherent line in the staff going back to Jack Smith in the Obama administration,” he wrote. “Several of the prosecutors that Trump dismissed who were one of the teams for the bad affair or the case of January 6 of January 6 came from the integrity of the public.”
However, the CEO of Lex Politica, Chris Gober, told the DCNF that it is “essential that the prosecution by the Ministry of Justice of the civil servants are carried out with consistency and integrity on a national scale”.
“It is regrettable that we have reached a point where additional guarantees are necessary, but the Biden administration reminded us that the thug and too partisan prosecutors can use their powers to bring accusations with political motivation and settle political scores,” said swallowing. “Surveys and prosecution against elected officials should be motivated by the evidence and the rule of law, and not by local policy or personal agendas.”
The DoJ has taken measures against several officials in recent months.
American lawyer for New Jersey Alina Habba announcement On Monday, she accused the Democrat representative of New Jersey, Lamonica McIiver, to “assault, hinder and interfere with the police”. The FBI also opened an investigation into the Democratic Attorney General of New York Letitia James for allegations of mortgage fraud in early May, according to several reports.
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