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Pam Bondi Reverses Media Protections to Cover Up Her Complicity in Unlawful Renditions

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There’s a great deal that is wrong not just with Pam Bondi’s reversal of Merrick Garland’s media policy, but the memo reversing it itself.

Bondi was in such a rush to splutter out unbridled sycophancy, she didn’t bother to spell check the document.

The very premise — that all leaking of “sensitive” information undermines law enforcement, the claim that leaking “sensitive” information is illegal — is wrong.

Safeguarding classified, privileged, and other sensitive information is essential to effective governance and law enforcement. Federal government employees intentionally leaking sensitive information to the media undermines the ability of the Department of Justice to uphold the rule of law, protect civil rights, and keep America safe.

Bondi ridiculously quotes Trump’s attack on Chris Krebs out of context and claims something that happened under Donald Trump instead happened under Biden.

However, under the Biden Administration, “elitist leaders in Government . . . weaponized their undeserved influence to silence perceived political opponents and advance their preferred, and often erroneous, narrative about significant matters of public debate.”2

2 Presidential Memorandum, Addressing Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship, __ Fed. Reg. __ (Apr. 9, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidentialactions/2025/04/addressing-risks-from-chris-krebs-and-government-censorship.

Worse still, Bondi parrots Trump’s attacks on Miles Taylor, including Trump’s legally erroneous claim that criticizing Trump anonymously is “treasonous.”

This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people. “Where a Government employee improperly discloses sensitive information for the purposes of personal enrichment and undermining our foreign policy, national security, and Government effectiveness—all ultimately designed to sow chaos and distrust in Government—this conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous.”8

8 Presidential Memorandum, Addressing Risks Associated with an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods, __ Fed. Reg. __ (Apr. 9, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/addressing-risks-associated-with-anegregious-leaker-and-disseminator-of-falsehoods.

Both Krebs and Taylor, I think, have cause to demand Bondi’s recusal from any matters affecting them.

Bondi not only falsely describes the scope of the gag order that Tanya Chutkan imposed on Donald Trump,  and defies the DC Circuit’s decision upholding it, but in so doing sanctions vicious attacks on witnesses in criminal cases (the scope of the Chutkan gag upheld by the DC Circuit) and slanderous attacks against the FBI (the intended scope of the Florida gag).

This weaponization included prosecutors trying to muzzle protected First Amendment speech criticizing the Biden Administration, including through gag orders targeting not only President Trump3

3 See ECF No. 105, United States v. Trump, No. 23-Cr.-257 (D.D.C.) (gag order); ECF No. 592, United States v. Trump, No. 23-Cr.-80101 (S.D. Fla.) (motion for gag order).

Every bit of this memo is an abuse of her position as Attorney General.

But I find the specific example of a purportedly classified leak she invokes even more problematic.

The leaks have not abated since President Trump’s second inauguration,6 including leaks of classified information.7

7 See, e.g., John Hudson & Warren P. Strobel, U.S. intelligence contradicts Trump’s justification for mass deportations, Washington Post (Apr. 17, 2025), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/17/us-intelligence-tren-de-araguadeportations-trump; Charlie Savage & Julian Barnes, Intelligence Assessment Said to Contradict Trump on Venezuelan Gang, New York Times (Mar. 22, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/politics/intelligence-trump-venezuelan-gang-alienenemies.html.

These are the WaPo story reporting that 17 of 18 agencies dispute the claims at the heart of Trump’s Alien Enemies Act invovcation and the earlier NYT report first debunking Trump’s claims.

Given Tulsi Gabbard’s boisterous referral, I don’t doubt that these are the alleged leaks under investigation and these will be the first journalists to be targeted by DOJ (while I have no hopes in Bezos’ rag, I hope NYT, especially, preempts this with a challenge to the terms of this order).

But that is the single example of purportedly classified information in the entire memo. Bondi is saying she has to start targeting journalists to protect Trump’s policies, but the single allegedly unlawful leaks she points to are leaks that prove DOJ is defending renditions based on an Executive Order that Trump’s own Intelligence Community knows to be false.

This is not about protecting classified information. This is about covering up her own complicity in unlawful renditions.

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Trump’s Latest Weaponization Is about Historic Loyalty Oaths as Much as Current Ones

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Yesterday, Trump issued three more Executive Orders targeting people for their free speech:

It seems Trump has an unlimited appetite for stripping people of security clearances they don’t hold. Or perhaps Trump’s handlers have figured out these EOs will provide an endless supply of dopamine hits that make the care and feeding of a malignant narcissist easier.

I want to add something to the flood of commentary about this abuse of power.

Miles Taylor, recall, was the author of an anonymous column published in the NYT.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

He left the White House in June 2019, over five years ago, and identified himself as Anonymous in October 2020.

Chris Krebs was the eminently competent head of CISA whom Trump fired by Tweet in November 2020, 53 months ago, after Krebs affirmed the integrity of the 2020 election.

The fact [sic] sheet targeting Krebs describes this as an attempt to “end government censorship,” but then describes it as a part of “ensuring loyalty” (to the US; I guess Trump has lost track of where “C’est moi” ends and “l’État” begins).

ENDING GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP: President Trump is committed to ending government censorship of Americans and believes that those who engage in such conduct should not have access to our nation’s secrets.

[snip]

ENSURING LOYALTY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: President Trump has made clear that loyalty to the United States must come before personal or partisan agendas, taking decisive action against those who misuse their undeserved influence to deceive the American public.

The fact [sic] sheet against Taylor fashions itself explicitly as an attempt to root out “betrayal.” and then asserts that one “drains the swamp” by “rooting out … disloyalty.”

ERADICATING GOVERNMENT BETRAYAL: President Trump is committed to ending the weaponization of government and believes that those who engage in such conduct should not have access to our nation’s secrets.

[snip]

DRAINING THE SWAMP: President Trump is delivering on his promise to drain the swamp by rooting out inefficiency, corruption, and disloyalty.

Both of these, then, explicitly make an example of past Trump appointees who “betrayed” Trump. They serve as an object lesson to the people leaking now.

But they are more than that. They also serve to order up an investigation into both men’s networks from their tenure under Trump.

Both EOs direct the Department of Homeland Security (for which both worked) to review their government activities to see whether they violated “suitability standards for Federal employees” or entailed dissemination of classified information; in Krebs’ case, Trump’s order explicitly incorporates Pam Bondi into the investigation as well, whereas the Taylor one only incorporates “any other relevant agency heads.”

Both deviate from earlier EOs in delivering the end report to the White House Counsel rather than Stephen Miller.

Here’s how that looks in the Krebs EO.

I further direct the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with any other agency head, to take all appropriate action to review Krebs’ activities as a Government employee, including his leadership of CISA. This review should identify any instances where Krebs’ conduct appears to have been contrary to suitability standards for Federal employees, involved the unauthorized dissemination of classified information, or contrary to the purposes and policies identified in Executive Order 14149 of January 20, 2025 (Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship). As part of that review, I direct a comprehensive evaluation of all of CISA’s activities over the last 6 years, focusing specifically on any instances where CISA’s conduct appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies identified in Executive Order 14149. Upon completing these reviews, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall prepare a joint report to be submitted to the President, through the Counsel to the President, with recommendations for appropriate remedial or preventative actions to be taken to fulfill the purposes and policies of Executive Order 14149. [my emphasis]

But there’s one more item of interest.

The investigative language builds on the EO Trump signed on inauguration day, which is mentioned prominently in the Krebs EO.

(b) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken based on the findings of the report.

But it expands the review by two years.

That is, the investigative language in both these EOs authorizes the investigation of actions — and people — from Trump’s first term. In the guise of leak investigations (18 USC 793 has a ten year statute of limitation, otherwise any investigation into the nearly or already expired statutes of limitation would be pointless).

And the investigation within Homeland Security would roll out without court review. (I expect some of these witch hunts will be stymied by judges who recognize the command influence and obvious fraudulent accusations behind them).

This effort doesn’t just target Krebs and Taylor for what Trump claims is “betrayal.” It also provides the excuse to map out their associates within government, including those who may still be around.

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