The new leadership of the Justice Department moved swiftly on multiple fronts Wednesday to assert control over the F.B.I. and marshal the power of federal law enforcement to investigate those who investigated President Trump.
Pam Bondi, who was sworn in as attorney general in an Oval Office ceremony, signed a memo creating a working group to review the “weaponization” of the criminal justice system by officials who brought criminal charges or civil suits against Mr. Trump. It was one of 14 directives that shuttered department task forces, restored the federal death penalty and, above all else, mandated obedience to Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Ms. Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, arrived at a moment of profound and disruptive conflict between the department and its historically independent and powerful investigative arm, the F.B.I.
Hours before she was sworn in, the department’s current No. 2 official, Emil Bove, escalated his growing conflict with the interim leadership of the F.B.I. — accusing the acting F.B.I. director and his top aide of “insubordination” after they resisted his efforts to identify agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Ms. Bondi’s first day on the job appeared to have been modeled on Mr. Trump’s, an intense blizzard of policy pronouncements intended to reverse Biden-era policies in a single swoop — coupled with accusations about the weaponization of the department under Democratic control that were unsupported by evidence of wrongdoing by investigators.
The attorney general, who had promised at her confirmation hearing last month that “politics will not play a part” in her investigative decisions, said she planned to scrutinize the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, the former special counsel Jack Smith and the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
Little information was given about the new working group’s mandate, composition or powers — or how it squared with another memo she signed on Wednesday ending political “weaponization” at the department.
In a memo sent to the entire F.B.I., Mr. Bove said that the repeated failure of top F.B.I. officials, Brian Driscoll and his deputy, Robert C. Kissane, to provide the names of bureau employees on the “core team” that prosecuted the rioters forced him to ask for a broader list of employees who investigated the riot.
His broadside came at a time of deepening crisis in the F.B.I., the result of the Trump team’s push to identify and possibly purge nonpartisan career bureau employees — from supervisors to line agents to analysts — involved in the Trump and Jan. 6 investigations.
Mr. Bove’s accusation of insubordination is likely to exacerbate the mistrust between the F.B.I. and Justice Department that erupted into the open last week, when the two sides clashed over Mr. Bove’s demand that the bureau produce the names of employees who were involved in the Jan. 6 cases, the largest investigation in Justice Department history.
Bureau employees have rallied around the acting leaders — both of whom have told associates they intend to go down fighting even at the cost of their jobs. Mr. Driscoll, 45, is not eligible for retirement.
Mr. Bove, in a memo to employees that was obtained by The New York Times, said that he had sought a narrower group of names. “The purpose of the requests was to permit the Justice Department to conduct a review of those particular agents’ conduct” to determine if they had committed ethical or procedural breaches, he wrote.
“F.B.I. acting leadership refused to comply,” he added.
Former Justice Department officials said that Mr. Bove’s request to conduct a review of agent conduct in the Jan. 6 cases was unusual.
In virtually all instances, allegations of F.B.I. misconduct are referred to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an independent watchdog.
So far, the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has remained silent as tensions escalate between the department’s political leadership and nonpartisan career officials at the bureau. President Trump fired as many as 17 inspectors general last week but spared Mr. Horowitz because of his previous work investigating the F.B.I.
Neither the Justice Department nor the F.B.I. immediately responded to a request for comment.
The letter raises questions about why Mr. Bove did not fire the acting leaders of the bureau and why his original request was not in writing.
Mr. Bove added that the “insubordination” forced the department to issue a far-reaching memo to all bureau staff members requesting that they provide details about their involvement in the cases, which could include 5,000 of the department’s 38,000 employees.
The department’s leaders demanded that questionnaires, which raised fears of an impending purge and prompted lawsuits, be filled out and returned by Monday.
In his email to the F.B.I., Mr. Bove said the bureau, whose work force leans politically conservative, had let politics interfere with its work as he attacked the integrity of the acting leaders of the bureau. He made the accusations without citing evidence.
“There is no honor in the ongoing efforts to distort that simple truth or protect culpable actors from scrutiny on these issues, which have politicized the bureau, harmed its credibility and distracted the public from the excellent work being done every day,” he wrote.
Mr. Driscoll, a decorated agent, questioned the demand for names and purpose of the survey in an email to the bureau. In an earlier email, Mr. Kissane said the F.B.I. did not know what the department intended to do with the information and that the request for information about cases and personnel was lawful.
Mr. Trump swore in Ms. Bondi, a political ally who worked for his nonprofit legal group, during a ceremony in the Oval Office that underscored her gratitude and fealty to the president.
“I’ve known you for many years, and I will not let you down.”
Mr. Trump, for his part, predicted Ms. Bondi would do her job in a nonpartisan way — mostly.
“I know I’m supposed to say, ‘She’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,’ and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be,” he said.
A few hours later, she signed a handful of policy memos on a wide array of topics, including the creation of the working group and doubled as a warning to career prosecutors: Carry out the Trump agenda “faithfully,” or get out.
Ms. Bondi vowed to take action against officials who “substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,” an admonition that mirrored Mr. Bove’s message to the F.B.I.
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