What You Need to Know
- Attorney General Pam Bondi sets the tone with the issuance of 14 new Department of Justice memoranda on her first day on the job.
- Attorney General Pam Bondi’s memorandum on charging, pleas, and sentencing identifies the new administration’s key enforcement priorities, with some notable changes from the last administration.
- Reports of the demise of the prosecution of economic crime are likely exaggerated, notwithstanding the new policy emphasis on other criminal activity.
Newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi wasted little time in setting the tone for her new tenure at “Main Justice,” issuing no less than 14 separate policy memoranda on February 5, 2025—her first day on the job.[1]
Among the many “First Day” directives of Attorney General Bondi, was her memorandum addressed to all U.S. Department of Justice employees setting forth the priorities of the Department and providing guidance on charging, plea negotiations, and sentencing.[2] We review the Bondi Memo’s key components below.
Reminder of the Importance of Non-Political Prosecutions
The Bondi Memo follows a familiar pattern from previous Attorneys General of establishing guiding principles for the Department under the new administration. Notably, the Bondi Memo cites the Justice Manual—a publicly available compendium of Department policy and guidance for federal prosecutors—for the principle that prosecutorial discretion may never be influenced by an individual prosecutor’s personal political opinions.[3] “These types of considerations,” the Memo states, “which previously led to the improper weaponization of the criminal justice system at the federal and state levels, as President Trump observed in Executive Order 14147, 90 FR 8235, have no place in the Department.”[4]
This reminder is noteworthy. Although not surprising, given the Administration’s statements upon entering office, and recently published reports of reforms at DOJ even before AG Bondi’s entry into office, the prominent emphasis and direction to prosecutors not to succumb to personal or political interests is unquestionably new. The need to remind line prosecutors of this important obligation is a sign of the times, as well as of concerns for the legitimacy of the Department and its investigation and charging decisions.
The Bondi Memo also echoes the traditional guidance to prosecutors and to U.S. Attorney’s Offices to charge the “most serious, readily provable offense” once it is determined that a prosecution serves a sufficient federal interest, and after consideration of any suitable alternatives, while ensuring that variation from this typical approach for unusual cases is documented and approved. There is, however, a subtle shift in emphasis. Whereas AG Bondi’s predecessor, Attorney General Merrick Garland, issued a policy that allowed for prosecutors to avoid mandatory minimum sentences that would not accomplish the purposes of fair prosecution,[5] the Bondi Memo does not explicitly contemplate a departure from charging mandatory minimums.
In fact, the Bondi Memo rescinds the Biden and Obama-era policies regarding charging decisions and the leeway those administrations had given to prosecutors in making charging decisions, conducting plea negotiations, and handling sentencings.
Enforcement Priorities Established
The heart of the Bondi Memo is the section setting forth the Department’s enforcement priorities. These are introduced by a list of current first-order threats: “The Nation faces historic threats from widespread illegal immigration, dangerous cartels, transnational organized crime, gangs, human trafficking and smuggling, fentanyl and opioids, violence against law enforcement, terrorism, hostile nation states, and other sources.” Accordingly, the Bondi Memo outlines enforcement priorities in the following corresponding areas: Immigration Enforcement, Human Trafficking and Smuggling, Transnational Organized Crime and Cartels, Protecting Law Enforcement Personnel, and shifting resources in the National Security Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
These general categories will be familiar to most, given the Administration’s articulated priorities in the Presidential campaign leading up to inauguration. Nonetheless, some of the finer points relating to particular priorities are noteworthy, and, once again, signal potentially significant changes in emphasis from the prior administration.
Most notably, prosecutors are instructed to investigate any incident involving immigration enforcement interference by state and local actors, and to bring criminal charges where suitable. In addition, the Department will require U.S. Attorney’s Offices to submit frequent reports related to those offices’ immigration enforcement activity, including Urgent Reports for declination decisions, and quarterly statistics regarding investigations and prosecutions.
For Human Trafficking, the Office of the Attorney General is asserting personal oversight over Joint Task Force Alpha, a prior initiative against Mexican and Latin American human smuggling.
Similarly, AG Bondi’s Office will take over the supervision of transnational crime, including oversight of Joint Task Force Vulcan (an initiative to eliminate the gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13), and will also prioritize elimination of Tren de Aragua and other international drug cartels. As the Memo states: “Joint Task Force Vulcan, an initiative launched in 2019 to destroy MS-13, which was wrongly deprioritized by prior Department leadership and improperly allowed to languish, will be reconstituted, expanded to address TdA in addition to MS-13, and reelevated to the Office of the Attorney General.”
To protect law enforcement personnel, AG Bondi directed the Department to investigate violence against law enforcement, seek the death penalty for capital crimes against law enforcement officers, and to support law enforcement “when they are subjected to unfair criticism or attack.”
AG Bondi also directed the ATF to shift resources from Alcohol and Tobacco enforcement to the other areas of enforcement set forth in the Bondi Memo.
As for resource allocation in the National Security Division, the Memo states that, “[t]o free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion, the Foreign Influence Task Force,” which had been responsible for investigation of malign foreign influence in the United States, “shall be disbanded.” Additionally, the Memo states “[t]he National Security Division's Corporate Enforcement Unit is also disbanded.”
As for the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which has seen a marked increase in investigative and prosecution activity in recent years, the Bondi Memo directs the DOJ FARA Unit to focus on traditional espionage-related activities and on civil and administrative remedies and public guidance rather than on the kinds of criminal investigations and prosecutions of late. This in particular reflects a marked change from prioritization of criminal prosecutions by the FARA unit over the past several years.
Some have observed, in the Attorney General’s announcements, a deemphasis of corporate criminal prosecutions.[6] In practice, however, it is reasonable to expect a decentralization of economic investigations from “Main Justice” to the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, consistent with the priorities spelled out in the Memos. For example, a related policy, “Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations,” states that “[t]he Criminal Division's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit shall prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and [transnational criminal organizations], and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection. Examples of such cases include bribery of foreign officials to facilitate human smuggling and the trafficking of narcotics and firearms.”[7] At the same time, however, that Memo also permits greater latitude for local U.S. Attorney’s Offices to pursue FCPA cases than was previously the case. Thus, time will tell whether the policy announcements in fact result in a decrease in the prosecution of traditional economic crime, but the priorities and resources of individual districts are likely to factor into this equation.
While much remains to be seen regarding the implementation of these new policies, the Bondi Memo suggests more guidance will be forthcoming. And what is beyond question, for now, is that the new Attorney General has made clear—and quickly—that there is a new Sheriff in town, with a markedly different perspective and approach that will be reflected in the Department’s work, including in its charging decisions, investigations, and prosecutorial priorities.
[1] The 14 memoranda are available on the Office of Attorney General’s website, and include those titled: “Eliminating Internal Discriminatory Practices”; “Ending Illegal DEI and DEIA Discrimination and Preferences”; “Establishment of Joint Task Force October 7”; “General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and Sentencing”; “General Policy Regarding Zealous Advocacy on Behalf of the United States”; “Reinstating the Prohibition on Improper Guidance Documents”; “Reinstating the Prohibition on Improper Third-Party Settlements”; “Rescinding Environmental Justice Memorandum”; “Restoring a Measure of Justice to the Families of Victims of Commuted Murderers”; “Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice”; “Return to Full-Time In-Person Work at the Department of Justice”; “Reviving the Federal Death Penalty and Lifting the Moratorium on Federal Executions”; “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives”; and “Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations.” See U.S. Dep’t of Justice Website, navigate to: Justice.gov, Office of the Attorney General, Select Publications, available at https://www.justice.gov/ag/select-publications (last visited Feb. 6, 2025).
[2] Memorandum of U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi to Department Employees on General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and Sentencing (Feb. 5, 2025), available at https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25514010-charging/ (last visited Feb. 6, 2025).
[3]See Justice Manual § 9-27.260.
[7] Memorandum on Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (Feb. 5, 2025), available at https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1388546/dl?inline (last visited Feb. 6, 2025).
