Attorney Michael C. Landman authored the Law360 article, “Rank-And-File DOJ Attorneys Will Keep Calm and Carry On,” which discusses the future of the DOJ under a second Trump administration.
In the article, Mr. Landman discusses typical presidential administration changes and how President Trump’s second term has the potential to upend traditional norms at the DOJ. Mr. Landman draws from his personal experience working at the DOJ during President Trump’s first administration and highlights the unique aspects of Trump’s second term, including the fact that this is the first time the DOJ has prosecuted an incoming president.
Mr. Landman contrasts Trump’s initial nomination of Matt Gaetz with Trump’s recent nomination of Pam Bondi, noting that the nomination of Bondi, a former state prosecutor and state attorney general, “will likely be viewed as a step in the direction of business as usual for the department.” Mr. Landman looks to Bondi’s own comments regarding Trump’s campaign promises to prosecute the prosecutors and offers his analysis of whether Bondi is likely to make good on those promises.
Finally, Mr. Landman predicts that, despite the inevitable shift in its prosecution priorities, the DOJ will be able to weather the change in administration. Mr. Landman points to a recent address given by the current Attorney General, Merrick Garland, in which he thanked the DOJ’s career prosecutors for being the “institutional backbone of this Department,” as an example of the sentiment of current and former federal prosecutors who still believe in career prosecutors’ ability to block out the “political noise” and “contribute to [the DOJ’s] pursuit of justice.”
Read a PDF of the article here.
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