By Rob Garver
DOJ is disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), established in 2017 to investigate efforts by state actors, such as Russia and China, to influence US public opinion, particularly around elections. Trump has been highly critical of efforts by law enforcement to identify and root out foreign interference in US elections, especially after a report by special counsel Robert Mueller and a bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee found extensive evidence that Russian influence operations had been mounted to benefit Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential election.
The US Department of Justice will refocus much of its staff and resources on the “total elimination” of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations in the United States while disbanding units dedicated to prosecuting white-collar crime and kleptocrats and tracking foreign efforts to influence US elections.
The change, announced in a set of memos issued this week by newly sworn-in attorney general Pam Bondi, is part of a major reorientation of a department that president Donald Trump says has been “weaponized” against him since the end of his first term in office.
In a memo issued Wednesday, her first day in office, Bondi called for a “fundamental change in mindset and approach” when it comes to combating drug cartels.
“We must do more than try to mitigate the enormous harms these groups cause in America,” Bondi wrote. “It is not enough to stem the tide of deadly poisons, such as fentanyl, that these groups distribute in our homeland. Rather, we must harness the resources of the Department of Justice and empower federal prosecutors throughout the country to work urgently with the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government toward the goal of eliminating these threats to US sovereignty.”
Kleptocracy programs eliminated
The same memo outlined Bondi’s moves to do away with specific units in the department. Among those eliminated were two dedicated to targeting kleptocrats — public figures who use their authority to steal resources from their own people.
The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, established in 2010, worked to identify the assets of kleptocrats, seize them and return them to the countries from which they were stolen.
Task Force KleptoCapture, a separate unit, was formed in early 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The unit targeted oligarchs close to Russian president Vladimir Putin and enforced sanctions against Russia by the US and its allies after the invasion.
“Attorneys assigned to those initiatives shall return to their prior posts,” Bondi’s memo said, “and resources currently devoted to those efforts shall be committed to the total elimination of Cartels and TCOs.”
The Criminal Division’s unit focused on bringing prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, she said, “shall prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of Cartels and TCOs, and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection.”
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