Trump's DOJ targets Jan. 6 convictions, broadens Fed construction site probe

Geoff Bennett:

The Justice Department is at the center of multiple major developments this week, from a new report alleging political weaponization under former President Biden, to fresh efforts to reverse January 6 convictions, to an unusual visit connected to an inquiry involving the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell.

Our justice correspondent, Ali Rogin, joins us now with the latest.

So, Ali, let's start with this legal effort to drop the convictions connected to the most serious crimes related to January 6. What more do you know?

Ali Rogin:

Yes, so to understand this latest news, it's helpful to go back to the beginning of President Trump's term, right after inauguration, when he issued a blanket pardon for most of the January 6 rioters, more than 1,000 people.

Trump did not pardon everyone, though. There were 14 members of the extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers whose sentences he commuted, meaning he reduced them, but he didn't outright pardon them. Those people included Oath Keepers head Stewart Rhodes, who was facing 18 years in prison and was among -- had the most serious convictions against him.

So, those 14, once those commutations came in, they were released from their sentences, but their cases were still making their way through the appeals process. Now what has happened is, the Department of Justice is asking the D.C. Appeals Court to completely dismiss these cases with prejudice.

That means that the cases will permanently be closed, and the DOJ said in a short filing that this is in the interests of justice. This is, however, a major blow to those attorneys who previously were at the DOJ and prosecuted these January 6 cases, many of which had already been wiped away.

But some of them today said that this was a reminder that the administration does not care about constitutional due process, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

And, separately, the Justice Department released a report alleging that the Biden Justice Department weaponized the agency against its perceived enemies, which is the very thing the Trump Justice Department is accused of. How did this come to be?

Ali Rogin:

Yes, this is the first product of the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which is something that former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood up.

The stated goal was to uncover instances of the Biden administration using the levers of government power to achieve political ends. This report is about the Biden DOJ's application of a law that criminalizes interfering with someone who is seeking to access reproductive care, including abortion.

It's known as the FACE Act. And the report alleges that the Biden administration selectively enforced the act by protecting abortion clinics, but not other pregnancy centers that oppose abortion rights, that they coordinated with pro-abortion rights advocacy groups, exercised prosecutorial misconduct, including screening jurors based on religion, and that they sought longer sentences for defendants who oppose abortion rights than for those who support those rights.

Meanwhile, a former leader of the Biden era's DOJ Civil Rights Division says that that team enforced the law evenhandedly.

Geoff Bennett:

And what more have you learned about the way the Trump Justice Department purged the people, the prosecutors who worked on past cases?

Ali Rogin:

That's right.

I heard today from a department spokesperson who said that the department has fired personnel who worked on those Biden era FACE Act cases who had previously remained employed at the Department of Justice.

Geoff, of course, all of this is happening as President Trump has repeatedly and directly called for the Department of Justice to prosecute his political adversaries. And Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with NBC last night, defended that contact.

Todd Blanche, Acting U.S. Attorney General:

That type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy, because it means that there's an executive, a chief executive, that is making sure every one of his Cabinet members are working as hard as they should.

So, the president is a driver of results, and so I don't have any issues with that. And as a matter of fact, I think it's why he was elected.

Geoff Bennett:

So add to all of that the DOJ continues to investigate the Fed chair, Jerome Powell. And this includes a visit to the construction site where the Fed headquarters is undergoing a renovation. What more do you know?

Ali Rogin:

This was an attempt to progress in that investigation, which has seen multiple roadblocks, yesterday.

These employees from the D.C. U.S. attorney's office made an unannounced visit to the site of the Fed renovation. They were trying to check on progress at the site, this after, last month, a federal judge threw out subpoenas the Department of Justice issued to the Fed, saying that there was abundant evidence that the main purpose of these subpoenas and this investigation was to harass and pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to either resign or yield to President Trump's policy demands.

Upon hearing of this unannounced visit yesterday, outside counsel for the Fed e-mailed the employees who tried to seek access and told them that the federal judge had concluded that their interest in this site was -- quote -- "pretextual" and asked that they commit not to seek to communicate with the Fed outside of the presence of counsel, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, lots to track.

Ali Rogin, our thanks to you, as always.

Ali Rogin:

You bet.