President Donald Trump vowed that in his second term, he would go after the foes that he claimed "weaponized" the government against him. In a deep dive on the failed effort, New York Magazine writer Andrew Rice explained that little has come from it.
Writing Monday, Rice described the story of Jan. 6 attacker Jared Wise, the FBI agent who egged on pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they assaulted Capitol Police officers. While Wise recently resigned, he was a key player in the so-called "weaponization working group" within the Justice Department.
"The term weaponization was one of Trump’s rhetorical tricks, a fancy way of saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'" wrote Rice. "So what if prosecutors had indicted him on four occasions and convicted him of 34 state felony counts? That just meant the government was criminal. During his campaign, Trump had promised retribution. They had tried to get him, so he would get them back"
Wise was hired to join the "weaponization working group" along with other close Trump allies. Attorney General Pam Bondi created a target list in her memo: "Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted him; Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who convicted him; and New York attorney general Letitia James, who had brought a civil fraud case against him and his family."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who oversaw the effort officially, was a key Trump defense lawyer who purports to be dedicated to Trump's weaponization cause.
After it became clear that lawyer Ed Martin couldn't get confirmed to be a U.S. Attorney, he took over the day-to-day efforts of the "working group." Another on the team is Neil W. McCabe, a national personality for the Real America’s Voice channel, a pro-Trump political commentary channel.
The story said that Martin prepared for his role as the "captain" of the weaponization working group by reading books about the Italian Mafia. He then divided the DOJ leadership into “competent and incompetent villains," one ex-federal prosecutor told Rice.
Rice explained that during the first Trump administration, the DOJ was populated primarily by Federalist Society members who simply saw Trump as a means to achieve their political ends. "In Trump II, the conservative bar was no longer sending its best."
Blanche and Martin began to clash, however, as it became clear that the two were taking different approaches, creating a "source of tension," one department official involved in the operation described. Blanche wanted to hold people accountable for weaponization "without becoming the weaponizer yourself." Martin was an arrest-at-all-costs kind of ideologue.
The only thing the DOJ has been able to achieve is going after New York's James for stating on a mortgage application that the house would be her primary residence. Another targeted former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying under oath before Congress. The U.S. attorney appointed by Trump wouldn't put his name on the cases. He was ousted and they found someone who would. Judges found the appointment to be unlawful and contrary to the laws that set deadlines for appointing a U.S. attorney. Both cases have fallen through.
Another effort was to prosecute Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), but the prosecution couldn't move forward, and those in the U.S. attorneys' office fear it has stalled completely.
According to the report, Blanche has been furious about the failed attempts, saying this is what happens when they're not cautious in their approach.
Someone familiar with Blanche's thinking told Rice, “That’s how big wins end up as gigantic, embarrassing losses."
The weaponization working group under DOJ expanded. They began working with other Trump loyalists at the White House, IRS, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and CIA. They were looking for anyone in President Joe Biden's administration they could find who broke the law.
Trump was furious. According to right-wing host Steve Bannon, the president wanted to see "perp walks." He hasn't and it has been over a year.
Wise, the FBI agent who participated in Jan. 6, was once a well-respected agent. One former colleague called him "smart" and "detail-oriented." Some had other opinions. One alleged that after Wise became a squad supervisor, “a number of things fell through the cracks." Wise grew irritated that he was taken off monitoring homegrown extremists to manage staff.
“This happens in the Bureau all the time,” the former colleague told Rice. “It’s called orders.”
Wise later said in court documents that it was Trump who inspired him to leave the FBI. He claimed he heard someone disparage Trump and was so furious he quit. He then took a job working for Project Veritas, a political organization that at the time was trying to shift into "something resembling a political-intelligence service," the report said.
Meanwhile, Martin has failed in his efforts to go after Comey and James. He appeared on Bannon's show and was pressed to work on the 2020 matters. Martin said he was on it. Since then, the DOJ has seized ballot documents and servers from the Fulton County Board of Elections, despite the judge expressly saying they could only take "copies." Officials complained that by taking everything, there was no longer a way to compare any discrepancies.
Behind the scenes, Blanche wasn't supportive of the cases.
"They tried to shut it down,” McCabe told Rice of the prosecutions.
Martin ended up ensnared in his own scandal, allegedly leaking grand jury information from their Schiff probe. He was stripped of all of his titles and would only be working on pardons from that point forward. Since then, Blanche has been hit by Martin's allies as having a "Democrat mentality."
The report noted that U.S. attorneys discovered that a way to make a name for themselves is by using their offices to go after Trump foes. So, subpoenas dropped for "John Brennan, the final CIA director under President Obama, who was one of at least 30 current and former intelligence officials who were served at that time."
“What they’re doing here is exactly what they accused the former administration of doing,” said one person the FBI contacted for information about the earlier Trump probes, Rice said. “Taking that tinge of what they want to believe and turning that into a criminal prosecution.”
The DOJ then began going after six lawmakers who worked in the military or intelligence. They have failed there too.
Overseing all of this was Blanche. A "dismayed" former friend told Rice, “I keep waiting for there to be some red line that he won’t cross."
Over the recent CPAC event in Texas, Blanche told the crowd he's still pressing to be successful.
"Everybody’s afraid that in the next administration, if we don’t win, we’re going to all be investigated and indicted," Blanche said. "And why are they afraid? Because that’s exactly what happened during the last administration."
At each turn in every investigation where someone in the Trump orbit was prosecuted, it was approved by a grand jury and a judge. In the case of several who were convicted and later pardoned by Trump, juries found them guilty, or they entered a plea agreement, admitting their guilt. Thus far, the same has not been true of the targets of the "weaponization working group."
Rice noted that about a day after he sent fact-checking requests to the Justice Department, Wise announced his resignation. A few hours later, Bondi was fired by the president. He alleged on X that he could only “fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ” if he were “outside of government.” Blanche now runs the DOJ.
“Americans are in the painful process, of realizing that our government isn’t so different than the evil ones they’ve told us about for many years," Wise wrote on X.
