Project 2025 Deep Dive: The Department of Justice

The Department of Justice Would Be Weaponized in Dangerous Ways if Republicans Win the White House.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Introduction

I decided recently to do a deep dive into Project 2025. I have heard rumblings about it, and there has been some reporting on it, but I want to delve heavily into the substance of it.

Project 2025 consists of Four Pillars. Pillar I is a guide that outlines how the next Trump administration should run if he wins in 2024. Pillar II is a personnel database where people can recommend conservatives to serve in a 2024 Trump Administration, think of it as a conservative LinkedIn database. Pillar III is the Presidential Administration Academy, a mostly online “educational system” that instructs enrollees how government should run from a conservative perspective and how to wield that power. There will be in-person sessions for selecting enrollees. Pillar IV is something called “The Playbook.” This will be the transition plans that agency teams for Project 2025 will draft.

Pillar I is fully available. It is the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. At points these papers read as though the author forgot that he is writing a policy paper, making himself furious with imagined culture war fantasies, to the point where he can no longer focus.

This is more serious than many of the topics that I have covered on past Pop Law segments or Hot Dockets articles, but it is important, and it should be a major discussion. These proposed reforms would change the legal landscape as we know it, so it is best we know what Project 2025 promises us that they will do.

Today’s Deep Dive will focus on the Department of Justice paper.

Meet the Author

Gene Hamilton is the top-lawyer at America First Legal. America First Legal is an obvious reference to Trump’s “America First” slogan, a phrase which has historically anti-Semitic and racist roots as well as a reflection of isolationist policy. This group was founded by Stephen Miller. Gene Hamilton is the secretary and general counsel of the group. Their activities include suing over grants given to Black-owned small businesses and suing over “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

When attending law school, Hamilton interned for ICE, then worked for the Department of Homeland Security’s Honors Attorney program. Afterwards, he returned to ICE, working in the Office of General Counsel in Georgia. In 2015, he became General Counsel to then Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, then worked for the Department of Homeland Security before then continuing to work for Sessions in the Department of Justice when Sessions was attorney general. Gene Hamilton is best known for being the architect of the end of DACA. He was also instrumental in the child separation policy. He also helped roll back protections for refugees, including ending Temporary Protected Status for refugees from Sudan and South Sudan. In fact, he was the lead on immigration policy of the Trump Administration’s transition team in 2016. It is likely that he will hold a key role again if Trump is re-elected.

Department of Justice Priorities Under Project 2025

The paper starts out rambling about election fraud, laptops, and the usual conspiracy theory nonsense. It is really not even worth addressing because it is endless culture war and right-wing conspiracy fodder. However, his listing of various grievances revolving around conspiracy theories reveals Hamilton’s motivations. If he believes them or not, I cannot say, perhaps some more than others. What matters is that he will utilize conspiracy theories to set his agenda.

Project 2025 makes no bones about it. If Trump wins, they will weaponize the Department of Justice to go after immigrants, diversity efforts, and to further Trump and his far-right policymakers’ agendas.

The Department of Justice plan under Project 2025 would not just reduce the department. Traditionally, conservatives have wanted to reduce government offices. However, this plan reveals a change within mainstream conservative thought: destroy the department from within and strip it down, but then weaponize its remains, which I will discuss more later.

1.     Terminate FBI Investigations Against Loyalists and Allies

First, there would be a review of all FBI investigations. Any that are contrary to “national interest” or determined “unlawful” will be terminated. The FBI will also no longer operate in an independent way. It would answer to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division directly and at times the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division. Hamilton’s reasoning is that this way FBI agents could not “go around” the Attorney General or the Administration leadership. This move would be a good way to ensure that the FBI is not investigating anything that involves Trump, his Administration, or his allies.

2.     Stop Investigating Disinformation

The FBI would no longer investigate disinformation, misinformation, and its purveyors. Hamilton gives the tired argument of “we should debate these matters in the public square.” This is a boring and tiring argument. Disinformation threatens our national security. Sometimes purveyors of disinformation are tied to extremist groups or other criminal activity. It also would behoove the FBI to keep an eye out. We cannot act like we did in a pre-J6 reality.