By Steve Neavling

Attorney General Todd Blanche sought to reassure a battered Justice Department workforce Thursday, promising to lead with integrity as he takes control of an agency shaken by firings, resignations, and concerns about political interference, the Associated Press reports.

In his first speech since becoming attorney general, Blanche told employees at Justice Department headquarters that he would uphold the rule of law “without fear or favor,” listen to differing views, and remain open to changing course.

“Everything that I do will not be the right path or the right decision,” Blanche said. “No one does that, but I do promise you this: I promise you that I will work as hard as any of you.”

Blanche takes over after a contentious confirmation process that highlighted concerns about the department’s direction under President Trump. Two Republican senators opposed his nomination, citing worries about politicization. Critics have also questioned whether Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, can operate independently as attorney general.

The department has lost large numbers of prosecutors and other employees through firings and resignations while pursuing several politically charged investigations. Blanche nevertheless defended its record, pointing to efforts targeting violent crime, drug trafficking, gangs, and cartels.

“Do not forget that we have accomplished a tremendous amount of good, positive work in the past year and a half,” he told employees.

Justice Connection, a network of former Justice Department employees, said Blanche’s promises would matter only if the department changes course.

“Blanche’s platitudes will only resonate if his actions start matching his words,” the group said, arguing that employees have been pushed out for challenging decisions or being viewed as insufficiently loyal to the administration.

By Steve Neavling

The Trump administration is reshaping the Justice Department’s approach to fraud, pushing federal prosecutors to pursue smaller cases involving government programs even as the number of major white-collar prosecutions has declined, The New York Times reports.

The shift is part of a broader White House campaign against fraud that Vice President JD Vance has said should leave no case overlooked.

“No fraud is small enough or big enough to look away from,” Vance said in April.

The administration has created a new Justice Department fraud division whose leaders report to Vance and has encouraged prosecutors to take on cases that historically may have been left to state or local authorities.

That approach has drawn criticism from current and former federal prosecutors who say limited resources are being redirected from complex corporate, investment, and public corruption cases.

“A food truck is not the kind of case you would typically see federal law enforcement resources being poured into,” former federal prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly said, referring to a recent California food stamp fraud case. “And that’s resources being pulled from other areas.”

The new emphasis comes as the Trump administration has pardoned or commuted the sentences of some white-collar offenders, dropped high-profile cases involving wealthy executives, and brought fewer white-collar prosecutions overall than recent administrations. From the beginning of Trump’s second term through May, the Justice Department brought 4,747 white-collar cases, compared with 5,554 during the same period under President Joe Biden, 6,626 during Trump’s first term, and 8,781 during President Barack Obama’s second term, according to federal statistics analyzed by Justice Connection.

Justice Department spokesman Matthew Tragesser defended the strategy, saying the department “will never turn a blind eye to fraud.”

He added, “Pursuing only the largest-dollar cases while ignoring smaller ones would send precisely the wrong message — that low-level fraudsters are immune from federal prosecution. They are not.”

By Steve Neavling

The Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on 10 used airplanes under a no-bid contract justified as urgently needed for deportation flights, but most of the aircraft have barely been used since they were purchased, according to The New York Times.

Three of the planes are luxury business jets, and the department later sought to loan or lease two of them to other agencies, including one for FBI Director Kash Patel, according to a letter from Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Christopher Murphy of Connecticut. The other seven are older Boeing 737 passenger jets that have remained parked for months in Lake Charles, Louisiana. An internal government document said the agency lacked enough staff to operate them.

The purchase was part of a broader surge in Homeland Security contracts awarded without competitive bidding after the department invoked an exemption for “unusual and compelling urgency.” The department has used that exemption to justify more than $29 billion in spending across about 500 contracts during President Trump’s second term, according to a Times analysis of federal data.

“If you asked me to write a list of the things ICE needed to increase the number of deportations, buying its own fleet of airplanes would absolutely not make the top 10,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration.

ICE has traditionally relied on chartered planes, as well as military and Coast Guard aircraft, for deportation flights.

Murray and Murphy are seeking more information about the aircraft after Homeland Security officials acknowledged that most would not be used for deportations.

“The American people deserve a full accounting of this gross misuse of their tax dollars,” the senators wrote.

Homeland Security said the idle 737s had been undergoing maintenance and that two were expected to begin deportation flights later this month.

By Steve Neavling

Federal sex-trafficking prosecutions have fallen to their slowest pace in more than a decade as staffing shortages, funding cuts, and President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown strain the government’s ability to pursue cases, according to a Reuters review of court records and interviews with prosecutors, agents, and victim advocates.

The Justice Department charged 73 people with federal sex-trafficking offenses through June, about 22% less than during the same period over the previous three years.

Reuters found that agents and prosecutors experienced in trafficking cases have left the government, while others have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, leaving some investigations stalled or without prosecutors to pursue them.

“You can’t say something is a priority and then not provide the resources to make that happen,” said Jacqueline Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York who led the prosecution of rapper and actor Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The Trump administration has maintained that fighting human trafficking remains a priority, and Justice Department officials said prosecutors may also be spending more time on complex, ongoing cases.

Victim advocates say the problems extend beyond staffing. Federal grants that support housing, food, and counseling for trafficking survivors have been delayed or frozen, while approvals for T-visas, which can provide legal immigration status to trafficking victims who cooperate with law enforcement, are running at about half their typical pace.

Some trafficking victims cooperating with investigators have also been detained by immigration authorities.

“If I can’t guarantee a victim won’t be locked up, how can I ethically tell them to cooperate with federal agents?” asked Laura Berger, an attorney for a Chinese woman who was trafficked in California and later detained by ICE despite having a pending T-visa application.

Advocates warned that the erosion of trust, staffing, and funding could take years to repair.

By Steve Neavling

ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves capable of delivering electric shocks, a move drawing criticism from civil rights advocates who warn the devices could add another controversial tool to the agency’s growing use of force, the Associated Press reports.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a notice published Monday that ICE could buy thousands of the devices, known as G.L.O.V.E.s, by March. The name stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. Manufactured by Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies, the gloves function normally until an officer activates an electrical mode and applies them directly to a person’s skin.

“It’s immediate and sharp, and it will distract you. I call it like a bee sting,” said John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, who is studying the devices. “If the officer is getting any type of resistance from the person, this is certainly an effective tool.”

Peters said the gloves could help officers more quickly control people who resist being removed from vehicles, homes, or detention facilities.

The manufacturer warns that the devices should not be used as punishment, against people who are merely verbally defiant, or on children, pregnant women, elderly people, or people with disabilities. But Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, said ICE’s record gives the public little reason to trust that the gloves will be used appropriately.

“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” Borchetta said. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”

By Steve Neavling

President Trump says the Secret Service directed him to secretly switch planes after a NATO summit in Turkey last month because of a threat against his life, an extraordinary security maneuver that left journalists and some White House staff unaware the president was no longer aboard Air Force One, The Washington Post reports.

“I go by Secret Service and the military,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane — equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say.”

An Iranian assassination threat prompted the operation. Trump initially boarded Air Force One in view of television cameras, then was secretly moved by an airport catering truck to a smaller military aircraft that carried him to Britain. Reporters and some White House officials remained aboard Air Force One believing Trump was with them, and journalists were told to lower their window shades.

The operation concealed Trump’s location for hours and underscored concerns about his security as he left Turkey, a NATO ally that borders Iran. Trump on Tuesday downplayed the danger to those who remained on Air Force One, saying he believed the smaller Air Force C-32A carrying him was the plane “they would be more likely to go for.”

Trump, who has survived at least two assassination attempts, also brushed aside the threat against him.

“Any consequential president has a lot of threats. Non-consequential presidents don’t get threatened. And I think that I may be the most consequential president,” he said.

He added, “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever.”

By Steve Neavling

Newly declassified FBI records are offering a closer look at a little-known counterintelligence investigation the bureau opened into President Trump in 2017 over concerns about his ties to Russia and whether he posed a national security risk, The New York Times reports.

The documents, released by the White House as the Trump administration continues to challenge the origins of the Russia investigation, don’t appear to undermine the FBI’s broader rationale for investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. But they provide new details about a separate inquiry launched shortly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017.

That investigation, code-named Oxferd Comma, had two parts. One examined whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey and interfering with the Russia investigation. The other was a counterintelligence inquiry into whether Trump’s connections to Russia presented a threat to the United States.

“The goal of the investigation is to determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes,” one declassified FBI memo said.

The FBI cited several concerns, including Russia’s efforts to help Trump during the 2016 election, contacts between Russians and members of his campaign, Trump’s business history involving Russia and his pressure on Comey to end the investigation into his campaign’s Russian connections. Trump has long denied acting on Russia’s behalf, and no publicly known investigation has found that he was controlled by the Russian government.

By Steve Neavling

ICE says every officer and agent working in the field will be equipped with a body camera by the end of August, accelerating a rollout that has drawn new scrutiny after several fatal shootings involving immigration officers.

ICE announced the timeline while pushing back against an Associated Press report examining the agency’s body-camera policy. The AP reported that ICE gives its director broad discretion over whether footage from shootings and other serious encounters is released, including a requirement that expedited disclosure be in the agency’s “best interests.”

Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella accused the AP of mischaracterizing the policy by conflating rules for rapidly releasing footage after serious injuries or deaths with the agency’s broader authority to disclose recordings.

“ICE policy permits expedited release when appropriate — and clarifies that it’s not appropriate to release footage when doing so could compromise investigations or privacy,” Venturella said.

The dispute comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE after two fatal shootings in July that were not captured on body cameras. Congress had previously provided the agency $20 million for cameras, and ICE spent another $30.9 million on body-camera equipment in July, according to federal records reviewed by the AP.

Venturella said ICE remains “committed to transparency and accountability” and is “on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August, ahead of our original timeline.”

Todd Blanche was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate over the weekend, but his biggest challenge may be balancing the demands of President Trump with mounting concerns about the department’s independence, The Washington Post reports.

Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, has led the department on an acting basis since April. He will formally become attorney general at a time when Trump has repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute political adversaries, while courts and some Republican lawmakers have grown increasingly wary of those efforts.

The department also faces turmoil within its ranks following firings, departures and declining morale, while prosecutors pursue cases involving fraud, immigration and violent crime alongside politically sensitive investigations encouraged by Trump. Those include a Florida probe of former Obama- and Biden-era officials and efforts to examine Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Blanche has defended Trump’s involvement in Justice Department matters and rejected concerns that conversations with the president about prosecutions are improper.

“If we have discussions where we have to talk about a case and whether we’re going to charge a case or whether we have charged a case, that’s okay,” Blanche told reporters last week. “I’m not concerned about that.”

The Senate confirmed Blanche in a 50-49 vote early Saturday despite concerns from some Republicans about the department’s direction under Trump. Blanche acknowledged before the vote that the job would come with intense scrutiny, saying, “It’s not as if I remain blissfully unaware of what will happen if I am confirmed.”