— 575 —
Department of Justice
22. Editorial Board, “About Those Domestic-Terrorist Parents,” The Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2021, https://www.
wsj.com/articles/about-those-domestic-terrorists-national-school-boards-association-merrick-garland-memo-
fbi-11635285900 (accessed February 3, 2023); John Malcom, “Are Parents Being Tagged as ‘Domestic Terrorists’
by the FBI? Justice Department Needs to Show Its Cards,” Heritage Foundation Commentary, November 18, 2021,
https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/are-parents-being-tagged-domestic-terrorists-the-
fbi-justice (accessed February 3, 2023); Victor Nava, “FBI Treated Twitter as a ‘Subsidiary,’ Flagged Tweets and
Accounts for ‘Misinformation,’” New York Post, updated December 16, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/12/16/fbi-
treated-twitter-as-subsidiary-flagged-tweets-for-misinformation/ (accessed February 3, 2023).
23. Mary Margaret Olohan, “DOJ’s Kristen Clarke: A Pro-Abortion Activist Enforcing the Law Against Pro-Lifers,”
The Daily Signal, October 26, 2022, https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/10/26/dojs-kristen-clarke-pro-
abortion-activist-enforcing-law-pro-lifers/ ; Josh Gerstein, “DOJ Official Pressed on Targeting of Supreme
Court Justices,” Politico, July 28, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/28/doj-official-pressed-on-
targeting-of-supreme-court-justices-00048506 (accessed February 3, 2023).
24. Solomon, “FBI Email Chain May Provide Most Damning Evidence of FISA Abuses Yet”; Post Editorial Board,
“The FBI Knew RussiaGate Was a Lie—But Hid That Truth”; O’Neill, “FBI Pressured Twitter, Sent Trove of Docs
Hours Before Post Broke Hunter Laptop Story.”
25. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, “History: The Nation Calls, 1908–1923,” https://
www.fbi.gov/history/brief-history/the-nation-calls (accessed February 3, 2023).
26. Press release, “FBI and Law Enforcement Partners Arrest Nearly 6,000 Violent Criminals This Summer,” U.S.
Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, September 13, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/news/
press-releases/press-releases/fbi-and-law-enforcement-partners-arrest-nearly-6000-violent-criminals-this-
summer (accessed February 3, 2023).
27. See, for example, Joseph Goldstein, “As Seen in ‘Goodfellas’: Arrest Is Made in ’78 Lufthansa Robbery,” The
New York Times, January 23, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/nyregion/arrests-in-cold-case-
investigation-including-78-lufthansa-heist.html (accessed February 3, 2023).
28. Danielle Wallace, “FBI Nationwide Operation Locates 121 Actively Missing Kids, Child Sex Trafficking Victims,”
Fox News, August 15, 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-nationwide-operation-locates-actively-missing-
kids-child-sex-trafficking-victims (accessed February 3, 2023).
29. Adam Shaw, “FBI Stepped in After Suspected Chinese Spy Got Close to Swalwell, Other Politicians, Report
Finds,” Fox News, December 8, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-chinese-spy-swalwell-other-
politicians (accessed February 3, 2023).
30. The precise scope and contours of this review warrant special consideration. A review of all ongoing drug
trafficking investigations or specific violent crime investigations may not warrant the department’s attention
in the same way as high-profile, politically sensitive investigations likely will. Nevertheless, the goal should be
as comprehensive a review as possible.
31. 28 U.S. Code § 531, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/531 (accessed February 3, 2023).
Emphasis added.
32. The same could be said to apply to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and potentially to the U.S.
Marshals Service, although the USMS’s mission protecting the federal courts could present compelling reasons
why the department should maintain it as a direct report to the Deputy Attorney General.
33. See, for example, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers No. 1, October 27, 1787, https://founders.archives.
gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0152 (accessed February 3, 2023).
34. An argument could also be made that the upper echelons of the FBI’s leadership should physically relocate
back to the Robert F. Kennedy building to ensure proper accountability and to emphasize organizational
reality: The FBI is a component of the department, not its equal, as outlined above.
35. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit of the Roles and Responsibilities of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of the General Counsel in National Security Matters, Report No. 22-116,
September 2022, https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/22-116.pdf (accessed February 3, 2023).
36. S. 2212, Crime Control Act of 1976, Public Law No. 94-503, October 15, 1976, § 203, 90 Stat. 2427 (codified as
amended at 28 U.S. Code § 532), https://www.congress.gov/94/statute/STATUTE-90/STATUTE-90-Pg2407.
pdf (accessed February 3, 2023).
37. See “Enhancing Federal Focus and Resources in Jurisdictions with Rule-of-Law Deficiencies,” infra.
— 576 —
Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise
38. Garland Memorandum, October 4, 2021; press release, “America First Legal Seeks Two Federal Investigations
on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Infamous Oct. 4th Memo Siccing the FBI on Concerned Parents,”
America First Legal Foundation, March 14, 2022, https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-seeks-two-federal-
investigations-on-attorney-general-merrick-garlands-infamous-oct-4th-memo-siccing-the-fbi-on-concerned-
parents/ (accessed February 3, 2023).
39. Luke Rosiak, “In Aftermath of Enemies List, School Committee Pledges to ‘Silence the Opposition,’” Daily Wire,
March 27, 2021, https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-enemies-list-school-body-pledges-to-silence-the-
opposition (accessed February 3, 2023).
40. The language of the Equal Protection Clause “reflects that ‘achieving equal protection against lawbreakers
was at the core of the Clause’s objectives.’” Lefebure v. D’Aquilla, 15 F.4th 650, 669 (5th Cir. 2021) (Graves, J.
dissenting) (quoting Lawrence Rosenthal, “Policing and Equal Protection,” Yale Law & Policy Review, Vol.
21, No. 53 (2003), p. 70) cert. denied, 212 L. Ed. 2d 791, 142 S. Ct. 2732 (2022)), https://casetext.com/case/
lefebure-v-daquilla-2 (accessed February 3, 2023).
41. See, for example, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s actions in 2020 calling on federal officials—executing their
mission to protect federal property and officials—to leave the city, saying, “They’re not wanted here” despite
the fact that local reports found that “[o]ut of more than a thousand arrests reported by the Portland Police
Bureau and other local law enforcement since late May 2020, only about 8.4% of the cases are still open”
and that the “rest have been dismissed or listed as no complaint, which means authorities are not currently
pursuing charges.” BBC News, “Portland Protests: Mayor Demands Federal Officers Leave City,” July 20, 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53466718 (accessed February 3, 2023), and Hannah Lambert,
“91% of Portland Protest Arrests Not Being Prosecuted,” Portland Tribune, January 5, 2021, https://archive.ph/
OSDbz (accessed February 3,2023).
42. Figure 4, “Trend in Average Guideline Minimum and Average Sentence Imposed for Armed Career Criminals
Fiscal Years 2010–2019,” in U.S. Sentencing Commission, Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns,
and Pathways, March 2021, p. 26, https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/
research-publications/2021/20210303_ACCA-Report.pdf (accessed February 3, 2023).
43. 18 U.S. Code § 924(e), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/924 (accessed February 3, 2023).
44. S. 1586, Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act, 117th Congress, introduced May 12, 2021, https://www.
congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1586 (accessed February 6, 2023).
45. This could require seeking the Supreme Court to overrule Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), in
applicable cases, but the department should place a priority on doing so.
46. 21 U.S. Code § 801 et seq., https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/chapter-13/subchapter-I/part-A
(accessed February 3, 2023).
47. 18 U.S. Code §§ 1961–1968, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-96 (accessed
February 3, 2023).
48. For more on this topic generally, see “Ensuring Enforcement and Administration of Our Immigration Laws,” infra.
49. See Paul J. Larkin, “Twenty-First Century Illicit Drugs and Their Discontents: The Scourge of Illicit Fentanyl,”
Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum No. 313, November 1, 2022), https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/
files/2022-11/LM313.pdf.
50. Jessica Rendall, “100,000 People Died from Drug Overdoses in the US in One Year, a Record,” CNET,
November 18, 2021, https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/100000-people-died-from-drug-overdoses-in-
the-us-in-one-year-a-record/ (accessed February 3, 2023).
51. U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division, “Information About the Department of Justice’s
China Initiative and a Compilation of China-Related Prosecutions Since 2018,” last updated November 19,
2021, https://www.justice.gov/archives/nsd/information-about-department-justice-s-china-initiative-and-
compilation-china-related (accessed February 3, 2023).
52. Ronn Blitzer and Jake Gibson, “Biden DOJ Ending National Security Initiative Aimed at Countering China amid
Complaints About Bias,” Fox News, February 23, 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-ending-china-
initiative-national-security-program-bias (accessed February 3, 2023).
53. National Security Strategy, The White House, October 2022, p. 23, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf (accessed February 3,
2023). See also ibid., p. 8.