Kyle Cave

Staff Writer

The Department of Justice’s purpose is to conduct investigations and ensure that abuses are addressed if they are present. The Department’s mission statement says, “The mission of the Department is to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights”.

As of January 20th, 2025, the Department of Justice has been dramatically reshaped. Instead of the Department going after civil rights abuses, it is now a crutch of the administration to carry out severe retribution against a perceived political enemy.

The head of the Department of Justice is Attorney General Pam Bondi. Ever since her swearing in, she has shown herself to be an attorney general we’ve never seen before. Bondi has gone on record attacking all who oppose the administration.

In April 2025, Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by the FBI. She was accused of aiding a non-citizen in evading arrest. After her arrest, Pam Bondi made comments about the judge, saying she was “deranged” and “above the law.”

Bondi also issued another warning to judges, saying, “If you are harboring a fugitive, we will come after you and we will prosecute you, we will find you.” The arrest of Judge Dugan sets a chilling precedent that if judges can be arrested, anyone is on the table.

Another way the Department goes after its political opponents is by accusing them of “weaponization.” In fact, there is an entire working group at the DOJ named “Weaponization Working Group.” Pam Bondi created this on her very first day as Attorney General, and the purpose is to go after “weaponization” in the federal government.

The leader of the Weaponization Group is a man named Ed Martin. Martin is a conservative activist who was originally tapped to be the Attorney for Washington D.C. Pressure from Republicans to withdraw his nomination resulted in Trump giving him a position as the head of the group.

Ed Martin was one of the many right-wing voices who spouted false claims about the 2020 Presidential Election being “stolen,” and defended the January 6th Capitol rioters. Martin is on record calling January 6th “Mardi Gras in D.C.”

The New York Times reported that a counselor to Ed Martin is a man named Jared Wise. The Times reported that Wise also has connections to January 6th. He actively encouraged rioters to “kill cops.”

Since being appointed to his position, Martin has notably gone after the Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, saying she was “a crook.” Martin was found posing for pictures outside of Cook’s home in a video. Then went on Fox News to discuss his actions.

Bondi has directed the Weaponization Working Group to review prosecutions against Trump. Including the Jack Smith Special Counsel Investigation, which investigated Trump’s role in the January 6th, his handling of classified documents and mishandling of government records. His conviction in New York for falsifying business records, and New York’s Investigation into the Trump Organization were headed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Not long after Ed Martin posted photos in front of Lisa Cook’s house, the DOJ opened a criminal investigation into Cook, accusing her of mortgage fraud for the two properties Cook owns. Specifically, Cook’s second property in Atlanta, Georgia. This comes after Trump’s relentless attacks on the Federal Reserve’s independence and Jerome Powell, pressuring him to resign.

The DOJ has not provided sufficient evidence suggesting Cook has committed mortgage fraud. NBC News reviewed a loan summary from the Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union showing her second property being labeled “Property Use: Vacation Home.”

NBC News also received a questionnaire for national security purposes, done by Cook. One of the questions on this questionnaire reads “Please list all of your interests in real property, including additional homes, vacation homes, rental properties, and interests in trusts that may hold property.” Cook answered the question by saying “second home” immediately following the address. This questionnaire was submitted to the Biden Administration and the Senate in 2021.

Letitia James is another person the DOJ has under investigation. Once again, the DOJ has her under investigation with allegations of mortgage fraud, connected to three of her properties.

According to CNN, the DOJ is currently struggling to build a case against James to indict her of mortgage fraud. They are trying to see if James made false statements on a loan application, saying that a property James owns in Virginia is her primary residence.

CNN reviewed these documents the Justice Department received from James’s lawyer, indicate that James stated multiple times to a mortgage broker that her Virginia property is not her primary residence.

A top federal prosecutor in Virginia has refused to bring charges against Letitia James due to the lack of evidence against her.

Former FBI Director James Comey is the latest target by the DOJ. Comey has been charged with one count of making false statements to Congress and one count of obstructing a congressional proceeding. The reason for his charge was that the DOJ claims Comey falsely denied authorizing an FBI employee be an anonymous news source in reports regarding a federal investigation.

The charges against James Comey came just 5 days after Trump accidentally posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, demanding that Pam Bondi go after his political opponents, whom he claimed, “are guilty as hell.” Trump also said in his post, “They impeached me twice and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Comey has pleaded not guilty, and his legal team says that the Truth Social post Trump made 5 days before the charges were filed proves Comey’s innocence and proves that Trump is only going after Comey for retribution.

U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert from the Eastern District of Virginia resigned over pressure from the Trump Administration to bring charges against Comey. Comey was charged because Trump brought in another attorney, Lindsey Halligan, to replace Siebert.

According to The New York Times, Halligan lacks prosecutorial experience and has worked as a personal lawyer for Trump. Halligan also, according to The New York Times, was one of the main people to lead the effort to crack down on the Smithsonian for “woke ideology.”

Something that all these individuals the DOJ has targeted have in common is that they all have gone after Trump in the past. James Comey led the Russia Investigation, which was an investigation to determine whether Russia influenced the 2016 Presidential Election. Lisa Cook was a result of Trump going after Jerome Powell. Jack Smith was a direct result of Smith investigating Trump for his involvement in January 6th. Letitia James went after the Trump Organization for financial fraud, which resulted in Trump having to pay $354.8 million in damages.

As of the writing of this article, these are most of the people the DOJ is going after. This list will most likely expand as time goes on. All of these actions mentioned in this article prove the point that the DOJ is being used as a personal weapon to attack Trump’s political opponents.

In the past, this would have been harder to execute. Past presidents have never used the Department of Justice as their personal legal team to execute investigations/charges for grievances.

Trump has also packed his administration with loyalists who will abide by Trump’s wishes. Even if the wishes are not legal, and/or ethical.

The Trump Administration is setting a precedent that laws do not matter. It is also setting a precedent that personal grievances are enough to go after political or personal adversaries.

This is not how administrations go about bringing justice to the citizens of their country. As mentioned earlier in this article, the Department of Justice’s mission statement mentions upholding the rule of law and protecting civil rights.

These personal investigations do nothing for American citizens except satisfy one political side of the aisle and nothing more.

Justice is not only supposed to be for yourself; the purpose of justice is to set a precedent for society. One’s experience of injustice is supposed to bring about justice for the future. This doesn’t bring anything to the citizens except more division and a department that’s more about solving grievances rather than bringing tangible justice to the people.