Trump DOJ’s ‘weaponization’ group under pressure to deliver results, source says

For many career federal prosecutors, it is the Trump administration that is using the Justice Department’s powers to create headlines and launch flimsy investigations for political gain.

From a legal perspective, “they certainly haven’t recorded any victories,” said Stacey Young, a Justice Department veteran under Republican and Democratic presidents who left them in January 2025 and founded the group Justice Connection, a nonprofit that seeks to support Justice Department staff.

Two cases, one against James and another against former FBI Director James Comey, were dismissed by a federal judge who ruled that Lindsay Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia was invalid. Justice Department officials weigh whether to reload Comey; an investigation into Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, has stalled.

Additionally, the Justice Department ousted career FBI agents and prosecutors and launched legally unprecedented investigations into six sitting Democratic senators, as well as the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis, all in connection with their political speech.

“They essentially succeeded in creating the most egregious example of this administration’s hypocrisy by naming a task force created to arm the Justice Department the ‘Armament Task Force,'” Young said.

Young said Trump has used the Justice Department against political enemies “more than any administration in the history of the department” and that the administration is “flouting the institutional norms that kept the Justice Department honest and impartial,” leaving the country in a “dangerous and unprecedented situation.”

Bondi’s memo outlines seven areas of focus:

• Former special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigations into Trump.

• Federal cooperation with Bragg and James in their Trump investigations.
• Allegation of “inappropriate investigative tactics and unethical prosecution” in January 6 cases.
• A January 2023 FBI memo that highlighted possible radical-traditional Catholic ideology.
• A 2021 Department of Justice memo on threats against school boards.
• Criminal prosecution for “nonviolent protest activity” under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which protects reproductive health facilities.
• Alleged reprisals targeting “legitimate whistleblowers”.

According to the person who had direct knowledge of the team’s work, members hope to move forward on these items in the coming weeks but say the investigation into the former special prosecutor will take the longest.

Some of the people involved in the group’s work have not heard of it. Brian Mock, a Jan. 6 defendant who recently announced a campaign for Minnesota State Senate, once met with the group’s former leader but has not heard from him since. Mock said he provided her with documents about how the Jan. 6 defendants were treated behind bars. He’s not sure what will happen with the report, but he believes figures in the Justice Department are “defying Trump” and obstructing it.

“I look at this as just swamp creatures protecting the country club. Those who are actually trying to pursue and hold people accountable are clearly being stopped by someone,” Mock said.

Steve Friend, a former FBI special agent who refused to participate in the Jan. 6 arrest of a defendant, said neither he nor several other FBI employees who claimed whistleblower status with whom he was in contact had heard from the group. Friend had a close relationship with Kash Patel, now director of the FBI, before Patel’s appointment.

Friend said he didn’t expect to be the first person the group would call, but expected to be on the list. “And no effort was made to communicate with me,” he said.

And while the task force is investigating whether the FACE Act was used against nonviolent anti-abortion protesters, according to the person close to the group, the Justice Department is trying to use the same charges to prosecute nine people in connection with a nonviolent protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, including former CNN host Don Lemon, another journalist and a group of anti-ICE protesters. Bondi called the protest an “attack.”

The total size of the group is unclear. At one point, the members worked with officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security, according to the person.

Colin McDonald, whom Trump recently appointed to a new national fraud-fighting post, is involved, according to the person close to the group, along with Christopher-James DeLorenz, a former staffer of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed the special counsel’s case against Trump for his handling of classified documents.

NBC News has reported on other Justice Department officials who worked on the project: a Jan. 6 defendant who was filmed shouting “kill them” at officers protecting the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 attack and a former Oregon judge who faced a series of ethical issues and was suspended from the bench.

The Justice Department has not said who currently leads the task force. Martin, its former boss, is a longtime conservative activist and defender of the Jan. 6 defendants. He took office saying he would “name” and “shame” people who were not charged with federal crimes, which would be a radical departure from standard Justice Department practices.

Martin said on X on Monday that any talk of his relationship with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was “fake news.” Blanche reposted the message and wrote: “Truth. See you at work, Ed. Let’s go!”