DOJ Demands Data Troves From US Attorneys on Trump Mandates (1)

The Justice Department sent US attorneys scrambling this week to meet a pre-Thanksgiving deadline to collect troves of data demonstrating compliance with Trump-directed crackdowns on immigration, political violence, and other priorities.

The Deputy Attorney General’s office on Monday directed all 93 chief prosecutors to submit by the end of Wednesday a breakdown of their offices’ progress fulfilling five of the administration’s top law enforcement mandates, according to an email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The directive shows how political leadership at DOJ headquarters this year has maintained tighter oversight of US attorneys to ensure alignment with President Donald Trump’s policies, limiting the traditional semi-independence held by federal law enforcement chiefs in prior administrations.

The latest message offers a window into the enforcement areas where Attorney General Pam Bondi and deputy AG Todd Blanche are most keen to deliver results to the White House.

Each US attorney is tasked with compiling a list of investigations responding to Trump’s Sept. 25 memorandum requiring DOJ to investigate and prosecute “organized political violence"—including funding sources—in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Pursuant to a Feb. 5 Bondi memo, they must provide their volume of open cases with “a nexus to a drug cartel,” transnational criminal organization, or foreign terrorist organization. US attorneys were told to include how many indictments they’ve secured for nationals of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, or the Dominican Republic, along with the status of warrants to arrest overseas fugitives before they can be extradited to the US.

“U.S. Attorneys serve as the Department’s frontline representatives, and we expect each office to fully advance the enforcement priorities established by the President, the Attorney General, and the Deputy Attorney General,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement. “Recent guidance—including requests for updates on key enforcement initiatives and memoranda addressing immigration-related fraud and other public-safety concerns—reflects the seriousness with which Department leadership views these issues.”

This week’s directive further instructed chief prosecutors to gather the number of cases they’ve closed or dismissed tied to Blanche’s April 7 memo relaxing enforcement of the cryptocurrency industry. For any that remain open, they’re told to justify how the case fits within the new guidelines.

Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, who oversees US attorney’s offices, sent the order.

Singh also sought US attorney progress reports on an April executive order in which Trump required DOJ to create a list of state or local sanctuary jurisdictions that thwart federal immigration laws and to pursue legal action against those that “remain in defiance” after they’ve been notified of their sanctuary status. Prosecutors must describe legal actions they’ve “executed to combat illegal harboring and obstruction,” the email says.

Finally, US attorneys were ordered to list the total investigations and prosecutions of adult sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children, stemming from a Sept. 24 Blanche policy calling to ramp up criminal charges.