President-elect Donald Trump still has to decide who will lead the Justice DepartmentExBulletin

The new Trump administration has expressed a desire for a major overhaul of the Justice Department and the FBI.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We want to talk more about some important decisions facing President-elect Donald Trump.

AND MARTENEZ, GUEST:

Yes, one of them is the one who will head the Justice Department. On the campaign trail, Trump lambasted the DOJ and the FBI. Soon he will have the opportunity to do something to express his resentment.

MARTINExBulletin's Carrie Johnson has covered the Justice Department for nearly two decades, and she's here with me now to talk about what the Trump administration might do about it. Carrie, hello.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hello.

MARTIN: How important is this priority to Donald Trump?

JOHNSON: This is a major priority, and you don't need to take my word for it. Here's JD Vance, the vice president-elect, speaking recently on the campaign trail.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JD VANCE: The most important job – it's a bit of a blow to my ego, but the most important job after being president of the United States in the next administration is not me. This is who we choose as attorney general.

JOHNSON: Michel, the attorney general, leads over 100,000 people. The department prosecutes crimes, monitors businesses. He defends antitrust and environmental laws, and protects civil rights. And the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Marshals all report to this Attorney General.

MARTIN: Who might be in the running for this position?

JOHNSON: You know, there are a lot of names floating around among members of Congress, like Senator Mike Lee of Utah. There are people like Jeff Clark, the DOJ official that Trump tried to promote in late 2020. Clark made false claims of election fraud. He faced some legal discipline for this. And then there are other lawyers like Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who represented Trump in several of Trump's criminal cases. I've heard that Blanche is more likely to run the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan. But another serious candidate is Mark Paoletta. He is a longtime D.C. attorney advising the transition. He is also very close to Justice Clarence Thomas.

MARTIN: So what are the top priorities for Trump's new DOJ?

JOHNSON: Special counsel Jack Smith is already wrapping up the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump. Trump has said he plans to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. But there are a bunch of other unrelated things the president could try to do, and they're very varied because the DOJ is involved in so many things. Here are a few. He could try to cut federal subsidies for local police officers who won't follow his immigration plans. He could try to enforce the Comstock Act and criminalize using the mail for abortion medications and supplies. It could restart the federal engine of capital punishment for the forty or so federal death row inmates. And some conservative advisers have also suggested trying to overhaul the FBI to try to make its director accountable to more junior officials within the Justice Department with more political control.

MARTIN: Can you talk a little bit about this whole question of who the FBI is accountable to? Because Donald Trump appointed the current FBI director in 2017, but my understanding is that his tenure is not contemporaneous with the president's, and that's intentional because they don't want the FBI director to be subject to political pressures in themselves. So how would this work?

JOHNSON: Yes, the 10-year term was imposed by Congress after J. Edgar Hoover had run the Bureau for decades and decades, and the idea was that he had gotten too involved in politics in his own personal vendettas. Donald Trump appointed current FBI Director Chris Wray only after firing Jim Comey. And the FBI only has one political person, the director. Chris Wray has now served a little over seven years, so he has some time left, but Trump has had a very strained relationship with Wray. Lawyers close to Trump expect him to fire the FBI director next year. As for FBI Director Chris Wray, I'm told he continues to oversee day-to-day operations and is actively planning with his team for the direction of the FBI for next year and beyond. It seems to me that if Trump wants Wray gone, he will have to fire him.

MARTIN: This is Carrie Johnson from NPR. Carrie, thank you.

JOHNSON: With pleasure.

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