{"id":2413302,"date":"2025-03-14T20:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T00:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-jack-smith-to-cartel-crackdown-trump-heralds-doj-reforms\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T20:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T00:32:02","slug":"from-jack-smith-to-cartel-crackdown-trump-heralds-doj-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-jack-smith-to-cartel-crackdown-trump-heralds-doj-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"From Jack Smith to cartel crackdown: Trump heralds DOJ reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffrom-jack-smith-to-cartel-crackdown-trump-heralds-doj-reforms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2413302&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">From Jack Smith to cartel crackdown: Trump heralds DOJ reforms<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2040065\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>&nbsp;ushered in a new era at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Department of Justice<\/a>&nbsp;on Friday, saying the department that once brought criminal charges against him would no longer be &ldquo;weaponized&rdquo; and instead concentrate its resources on illegal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/immigration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">immigration<\/a>&nbsp;and street crime.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s appearance inside the very building that led an investigation and prosecution of Trump during the last couple of years was momentous. It is rare for presidents to give remarks from inside the department&rsquo;s Washington headquarters.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3347940\/mahmoud-khalil-sues-columbia-house-committee-disciplinary-records\/\">Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia and House committee to block transfer of disciplinary records<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3347316\/trump-appear-doj-headquarters-dramatic-reforms-pam-bondi\/\">Trump to appear at DOJ headquarters amid major reforms under Bondi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3347121\/trump-asks-supreme-court-end-birthright-citizenship\/\">Trump asks Supreme Court to help him end birthright citizenship<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls,&rdquo; Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, who spoke right before him, both recognized two mothers in the audience who lost their children to fentanyl, praised immigration hawk and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and cheered on the administration&rsquo;s aggressive deportation operations.<\/p>\n<p>Flanked by &ldquo;fighting fentanyl&rdquo; signs and a stack of faux packages of the illicit drug, Trump said that in the first two months of his administration, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration officers had seized &ldquo;nearly 1 million deadly doses&rdquo; of fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This department will not rest until we have ended the fentanyl epidemic in America once and for all,&rdquo; Trump said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Before Trump took the stage, newly confirmed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that in the last two months, DOJ prosecutors across the country have brought criminal cases against more than 6,600 illegal immigrants, nearly half of which were in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>FBI Director Kash Patel, who also addressed the audience, said violent crime had &ldquo;exploded&rdquo; and attributed it directly to &ldquo;the border invasion that occurred.&rdquo; The Biden administration became defined, in part, by its surges of illegal migration and lax border policies, but the FBI&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3223371\/republicans-press-fbi-explain-process-updating-crime-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;slight declines in violent crime in the United States last year.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ has since Day One of the Trump administration been laser-focused on immigration-related crime, including by waging legal fights with so-called sanctuary jurisdictions and redirecting valuable resources to combat transnational drug cartels and violent illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>But immigration, Trump&rsquo;s signature issue during his campaign, was overshadowed at times during his speech on Friday by his bombastic diatribes condemning his political enemies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump arrives with Attorney General Pam Bondi to speak at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trump named former special counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, among others, calling them corrupt and &ldquo;thugs&rdquo; and vowing &ldquo;accountability&rdquo; for their unspecified alleged crimes. Smith was forced to drop both cases against Trump after he won reelection.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the classified documents case against him &ldquo;was bulls***&rdquo; and claimed prominent liberal attorney Norm Eisen, who has been leading numerous lawsuits against Trump&rsquo;s executive actions, was &ldquo;vicious and violent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been after me for nine years,&rdquo; Trump said of Eisen, who helped lead Democrats&rsquo; first impeachment case against Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also chided the media and said CNN and MSNBC &ldquo;write 97.6% bad&rdquo; about him and do &ldquo;illegal&rdquo; work, a remark that comes as part of his intensifying&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3237318\/trump-steps-up-battle-media-kill-press-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">battle<\/a>&nbsp;with media outlets whose coverage Trump has disagreed with.<\/p>\n<p>The crowd was full of dozens of supporters, from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to controversial interim U.S. Attorney&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3329027\/ed-martin-unusual-activity-jeopardizes-nomination-lead-d-c-office\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ed Martin<\/a>&nbsp;and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Trump acknowledged law enforcement officers in the room, telling them to loud applause he &ldquo;will always have [their] back.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He reiterated his desire to expand capital punishment and seek the death penalty for people who kill police officers. Opponents of the death penalty have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/deathpenaltyinfo.org\/news\/among-flurry-of-first-day-executive-orders-president-trump-issues-order-on-the-death-penalty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;Trump&rsquo;s vision for it is at odds with legal precedents, so it remains unclear how successful he will be in fulfilling it. Sixteen federal executions have been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3131885\/death-penalty-divide-trump-urges-more-capital-punishment-harris-silent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carried out<\/a>&nbsp;since 1988, 13 of which were during Trump&rsquo;s first administration.<\/p>\n<p>Trump emphasized &ldquo;law and order,&rdquo; though he once again carved out an exception for &ldquo;J6 hostages.&rdquo; The president drew widespread bipartisan criticism in January for pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, including those who were convicted of assaulting police officers during the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3321260\/trump-doj-risks-undermining-integrity-eric-adams-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TRUMP DOJ RISKS UNDERMINING INTEGRITY WITH ERIC ADAMS SAGA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>His DOJ leadership team has been investigating and ousting employees at the DOJ and FBI who they feel acted overzealously during the four-year Jan. 6 inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>The personnel action is part of Trump&rsquo;s and Bondi&rsquo;s broader plan to use what they have coined a &ldquo;weaponization working group&rdquo; to review investigative and prosecutorial activity against people on the Right, an effort that critics have said serves to perpetuate politicization at the DOJ rather than halt it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2040065\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2040065\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Jack Smith to cartel crackdown: Trump heralds DOJ reforms President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0ushered in a new era at the\u00a0Department of Justice\u00a0on Friday, saying the department that once brought criminal charges against him would no longer be \u201cweaponized\u201d and instead concentrate its resources on illegal\u00a0immigration\u00a0and street crime. Trump\u2019s appearance inside the very building that led an investigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2413303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/AP25073719749030.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/AP25073719749030.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}