WASHINGTON — More than a year after Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” meant to root out “abuses of the criminal justice process” by federal law enforcement officers in their investigations of President Donald Trump, the Justice Department is scrambling to produce a report, according to a person directly familiar with the group’s work.
Ed Martin, named to lead it in May, was removed from his job last week with no public explanation.
Justice Department leaders are pressuring the group to deliver results in the coming weeks; members plan to meet daily to work through the investigative areas Bondi laid out as priorities, the person said. Another person familiar with the group’s work said it is expected to produce its first report soon.
“The Justice Department is actively looking into the areas outlined in Attorney General Bondi’s ‘Day One’ memo,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Weaponization Working Group is diligently working to restore integrity to the Department of Justice and is utilizing resources across the entire agency to fulfill this effort.”
The pressure comes as a frustrated Trump has complained about Bondi to aides and allies in recent weeks, describing her as weak and insufficiently aggressive in pursuing cases against his perceived opponents, according to a White House official who had direct knowledge of the comments. Shortly afterward, Justice Department officials involved in the group said they were berated over their inability to produce so far, the person said.
The White House official said that despite the criticism, Bondi was not thought to be in danger of losing her job. Trump has publicly said she retains his trust.
“Pam is doing an excellent job. She has been my friend for many years. Tremendous progress is being made against radical left lunatics,” who are good at only one thing, cheating in elections and the crimes they commit,” Trump said in a statement from the White House.
The White House also sent words of praise for Bondi from Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The Wall Street Journal first reported Trump’s complaints.
The working group was established following an executive order from Trump called “Ending the Weaponization of the Government,” which directed his administration to “take appropriate action to correct past misconduct.”
The goal, according to Bondi’s Feb. 5, 2025, memo, was to review the actions of those who pursued investigations the administration deemed political.
Trump was charged in two separate federal cases, one about his handling of classified documents and the other about his actions to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. A judge ended the documents case, and the election case was dropped after he won re-election.
Trump was also tried and convicted in a New York hush-money case headed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James successfully sued him, three of his adult children and his employees on accusations of inflating the value of some properties.
Trump has long fumed over the prosecutions against him, which he has decried a “witch hunt,” and has said he committed no crimes. He is appealing the decisions; a New York appeals court has dismissed the civil fraud penalty.
He has also posted a message to Bondi on social media pressuring her to take action against a number of his political foes.
In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” last week, Trump asserted that he could be more directly involved in federal prosecutions if he desired.
“I think I’m extremely moderate, especially for what they did to me,” he said. “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. I could be involved, but I’m not.”
To many career federal prosecutors, it’s the Trump administration doing the weaponizing, using the powers of the Justice Department to create flashy headlines and launch shaky investigations for political purposes.
Legally speaking, “they certainly haven’t clocked any wins,” said Stacey Young, a Justice Department veteran under both Republican and Democratic presidents who left last January 2025 and founded the group Justice Connection, a nonprofit organization that seeks to support the Justice Department workforce.
Two cases, one against James and the other against former FBI Director James Comey, have been tossed out by a federal judge who ruled that Lindsay Halligan’s appointment as the U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia was invalid. Justice Department officials are weighing whether to re-charge Comey; an investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has stalled.
In addition, the Justice Department has ousted career FBI agents and prosecutors and launched legally unprecedented investigations into six sitting Democratic senators, as well as the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis, all in connection with their political speech.
“They basically succeeded in creating the starkest example of this administration’s hypocrisy by naming a working group that was created to weaponize the Department of Justice the ‘Weaponization Working Group,’” Young said.
Young said that Trump has used the Justice Department against political enemies “more than any administration in the department’s history” and that the administration is “running roughshod over the institutional norms that kept DOJ honest and unbiased,” leaving the country in a “dangerous and unprecedented situation.”
Bondi’s memo laid out seven areas of focus:
Former special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigations into Trump.
Federal cooperation with Bragg and James in their Trump investigations.
Alleged “improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions” of Jan. 6 cases.
A January 2023 FBI memo that pointed out a possible radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology.
A 2021 Justice Department memo about threats against school boards.
Criminal prosecutions of “non-violent protest activity” under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which protects reproductive health facilities.
Alleged retaliatory targeting of “legitimate whistleblowers.”
According to the person who had direct knowledge of the team’s work, members hope to make progress on the points in the coming weeks but say the look into the former special counsel will take the most time.
Some of those involved in the group’s work have heard little. Brian Mock, a Jan. 6 defendant who recently announced a campaign for the state Senate in Minnesota, met once with the group’s former leader but has not heard from it since. Mock said he provided it with materials about how Jan. 6 defendants were treated behind bars. He is not sure what will end up happening with the report, but he believes figures within the Justice Department are “defying Trump” and standing in the way.
“I look at it as just total swamp creatures protecting the country club. Those who are actually trying to go after and hold people accountable are clearly being stopped by someone,” Mock said.
Steve Friend, a former FBI special agent who refused to participate in the arrest of a Jan. 6 defendant, said neither he nor several other FBI employees who claimed whistleblower status that he is in contact with had heard from the group. Friend had a close relationship with now-FBI Director Kash Patel before Patel’s appointment.
Friend said that he did not expect he would be the first person the group would call but that he did expect to be on the list. “And there’s been no effort to communicate with me,” he said.
And while the working group is investigating whether the FACE Act was used against nonviolent antiabortion protesters, according to the person familiar with the group, the Justice Department is trying to use the same charges to prosecute nine people in connection with a nonviolent protest in a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, including former CNN host Don Lemon, another journalist and a group of anti-ICE demonstrators. Bondi has described the protest as an “attack.”
The total size of the group is not clear. At one point, members were working with officials in the Director of National Intelligence’s Office, the CIA, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security, according to the person.
Colin McDonald, whom Trump recently nominated to a new national fraud enforcement position, is involved, according to the person familiar with the group, along with Christopher-James DeLorenz, a former clerk for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who threw out the special counsel’s case against Trump over his handling of classified documents.
NBC News has reported on other Justice Department officials who have worked on the project: a Jan. 6 defendant who was captured on video yelling “kill ’em” at officers protecting the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 attack and a former Oregon judge who faced a series of ethical issues and was suspended from the bench.
The Justice Department has not said who is running the working group now. Martin, its former head, is a longtime conservative activist and advocate for Jan. 6 defendants. He went into the job saying he would “name” and “shame” people who were not charged with federal crimes, which would be a sharp departure from standard Justice Department practices.
Martin said Monday on X that any chatter about his relationship with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was “FakeNews.” Blanche reposted the message and wrote: “Truth. See you at work, Ed. Let’s go!”
