Justice Department purge under Trump administration | 60 Minutes

the US Department of Justice is reeling tonight from firings and resignations in the first weeks of the Trump Administration one senior leader describes a workplace of confusion and fear the justice department wields enormous power through the FBI and federal prosecutors it is critical to crime fighting and National Security but even more the justice department is where Americans look for the rule of law president Trump has been a target of its investigations during the Biden Administration now Trump says his administration is cleaning up a justice department corrupted by politics fear has silenced many in the department

but two prosecutors we met chose to speak up the story will continue in a moment the justice department is under attack they're coming after the people that want to uphold the laws that exists and that's should be terrifying to everyone Sarah LaVine and sha Brennan were Federal prosecutors on the Justice Department's biggest investigation the attack on the capital until they were fired by the Trump Administration January 31st why were you fired CU I did my job I mean it's really that simple is I went in I followed the facts I followed the law and I

got fired because I did exactly what I was supposed to do I think we know what we did was right no regrets absolutely none what we did was justice justice for 140 police officers wounded January 6 2021 LaVine and Brennan were hired about a year and a half ago to prosecute cases from the riot and in how many of your cases was the defendant acquitted none none which tells you what the evidence was overwhelming overwhelming but last month the president pardoned even the most violent convicts whom he calls by another name so this is January

6th and these are the h messages approximately 1,500 for a pardon not long after the ink was dry letters of termination hit the justice department the letters rewrote history calling the prosecution itself in the words of the president a grave National Injustice anyone who has watched videos of what happened on January 6 knows that the grave of national Injustice was not the decision to prosecute the rioter the grave of national Injustice has been the Department of Justice turning its back on those Law Enforcement Officers those members of Congress and and all of those victims who

were affected this was a decision to protect people who had committed serious crimes because they were doing so in support of the president's re-election I don't think anybody to understand the Department of Justice we went to one who knows it well Peter kaisler served Republican presidents and was himself head of the justice department in 2007 as acting attorney general for George Bush I don't think anybody believes that these people would have been pardoned if they had engaged in exactly the same acts but had stormed the capital say in opposition to the president and his policies

what message does the president's pardon sined it says that you can commit some very serious crimes but if you do so as an identifiable supporter of the president's agenda and political interests you may be able to get off and I think it was designed to send that message a message that also hit the FBI Trump's acting Deputy attorney general Amil B de demanded the names of about 5,000 FBI Personnel who had Tracked Down the capital riers in 50 states he has encouraged agents to inform on one another and he directed the firing of eight of

the FBI's top Executives saying in part I do not believe that the current leadership of justice department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the president's agenda Faithfully is that the job of the FBI to implement the president's agenda no I mean the president obviously has the prerogative to set the overall policies of the administration but both the FBI and the larger justice department of which it's a part of owe their duty to the law but someone might say isn't this what always happens a new president comes in the former people are wiped

out and new people are appointed uh not at all this is really unprecedented and it's important to understand why political appointees get removed and replaced by presidents all the time this is the top layer of leadership but beneath them and the core of the government are the Civil Service these are people who have developed expertise over often Decades of experience working across administrations of both parties and whose jobs are protected by Civil Service laws that have been on the books since the late 19th century Trump's new leader of the justice department is attorney general Pam

Bondi former Attorney General of Florida Senator I think that is she is a trump loyalist who says that the Justice Department's prosecutions of the president were motivated by politics they targeted Donald Trump they went after him actually starting back in 20 16 they targeted his campaign they have launched countless investigations against him that will not be the case if I am attorney general I will not politicize that office I will not Target people simply because of their political affiliation Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country bondy and B declined our request for interviews if

confirmed I will fight every day to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components the partisanship the weaponization will be gone America will have one tier of justice for all having said that Bondi launched a review to scrutinize those in the Justice Department who were involved in prosecutions of Donald Trump including his indictment in the 2020 election case and his indictment for allegedly hiding classified documents in his home I don't think anyone who's been watching the last four weeks could say they are taking politics politics out of the law

enforcement process quite the contrary um they are engaging in the very politicization and weaponization that they claim to be trying to eliminate Peter kler former acting attorney general was a republic until Trump's first term when kler switched to Independent some people watching this interview say you were always against the president of course you're saying these things well it's true that I've never voted for Donald Trump um my concern about the use of law enforcement to achieve political ends that's among the reasons I've never voted for President Trump but at the end of the day I

people can support whatever candidate they want I would hope that nearly everybody would agree as a basic matter that our Criminal Justice System shouldn't be used as a tool of politics to reward friends and punish personal enemies that appearance of rewarding friends has triggered the biggest rupture so far it involves a bribery indictment against the mayor of New York Eric Adams a charge Adams denies though he's a Democrat Adams agreed to help Trump's deportation effort this month AML boet ordered New York prosecutors to drop the bribery prosecution of Adams in part so that Adams could

devote full attention to Illegal immigration and violent crime the directive to drop the charges against mayor Adams was one of the most nakedly political documents at of the justice department I've ever seen if mayor Adams had instead been an opponent of the president's immigration agenda then he would have been prosecuted but because he says he wants to help Advance the president's immigration agenda he doesn't get prosecuted B's order triggered a Revolt Danielle Sassoon the top prosecutor in Manhattan resigned she refused to sign a motion to dismiss the case because it was in her words for

no other reason than to influence Adams's mayoral decision-making boet shot back criticizing the case writing you have also strained unsuccessfully to suggest that some kind of quidd proquo arises from my directive this is false but a second Manhattan prosecutor quit telling B he would have to find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a a coward to sign the motion boet ordered prosecutors in Washington to sign and there six more resigned for a total of eight and how seriously should the public take those resignations oh it's a flashing red light nobody gives

up these jobs easily but people have resigned because they are being otherwise commanded to perform une iCal acts that they think are contrary to their responsibilities looking ahead what is the tripwire in your view that would signal that the country is in serious trouble well I think we're already there I think when you have a major political corruption prosecution dismissed because somebody has agreed to become a political Ally of the president you know that trip wire has already been tripped this past week Amel boet explained his motion to dismiss to a federal judge there is

no decision yet the yay are 51 last Thursday by the thinnest of margins the Senate confirmed Trump's new director of the FBI cash Patel in a message to the bureau Patel said his commitment is to Justice and the rule of law he's a former prosecutor who is dedicated to Trump Patel has written children's books featuring a king Donald who is protected by a wizard named cash right now we're really in a place where we're teetering on the edge for former prosecutors Sarah LaVine and Shan Brennan speaking publicly was not an easy decision but in the

end they believe silence may be the greatest threat to just I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't at least try to help people understand why what we've seen happening in the Department of Justice over the past few weeks is so critical and why it not only puts all Americans individually at risk it really puts our constitutional governmental structure at risk the thing is is prosecutors we have an ethical obligation that's higher than any other attorney because what a prosecutor can do is we can take away somebody's Liberty and what they're doing

is they're driving out people that are willing to follow the law and that's terrifying because our democracy falls apart if there's not some sort of Law and Order that goes along with it