Carrie Johnson

Chris Maddy's a lawyer for some of those fired officials.

Then another bunch of FBI agents who had nearly 200 years of experience got fired for taking a knee during racial justice protests five years ago.

President Trump has been pretty clear about his intentions.

He's been angry ever since the Biden DOJ charged him with federal crimes and cases that wound up being dropped after the election.

Here's Trump delivering a major speech at the Justice Department headquarters in March.

There's now a pattern of the Justice Department going out of its way to help allies of the president and other people accused of political corruption.

For instance, the president has granted clemency to several members of Congress, George Santos of New York, Henry Cuellar of Texas, among them.

He's also issued pardons of the former president of Honduras,

and other convicted drug kingpins that undid a lot of work by federal prosecutors and agents.

And at the same time, the Justice Department seems to be targeting Trump's political opponents, people like the former FBI Director Jim Comey, New York Attorney General Tish James, and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff.

The Senate still has advise and consent power and some oversight power if the Republicans in charge now want to use that power.

And there are some signs of infighting between DOJ leaders and the people at the top of the FBI.

FBI Director Kash Patel, his deputy Dan Bongino, that could produce some turnover in the coming weeks or months.

And some nonprofit groups suggest accountability for now may be simply documenting all the unusual and possibly unlawful things happening at the Justice Department.

Thanks for having me.

A law enforcement source tells NPR a grand jury in Virginia declined to bring criminal charges against Tish James.

The New York attorney general is a prominent critic of the president, who sued him on civil fraud charges related to his real estate business and won.

Her lawyer, Abby Lowell, says the investigation of James is a stain on the Justice Department and raises questions about its integrity.

Two separate grand juries in Virginia have now rejected indictments against James.

A judge invalidated other charges against her because the prosecutor President Trump installed was not legally appointed.