MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We want to talk more about some big decisions facing President-elect Donald Trump.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, one of them is who will lead the Justice Department. On the campaign trail, Trump has blasted the DOJ and the FBI. Soon, he will have a chance to do something about his resentment.
MARTIN: NPR's Carrie Johnson has covered the Justice Department for nearly two decades, and she's here with me now to talk about what the Trump administration might do there. Carrie, good morning.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: How big a priority is this for Donald Trump?
JOHNSON: This is a huge priority, and you don't need to take my word for it. Here's JD Vance, the vice president-elect, talking recently on the campaign trail.
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JD VANCE: The most important job - this is a bit of a hit to my ego, but the most important job after president of the United States in the next administration, it's not me. It's who we select as attorney general.
JOHNSON: Michel, the attorney general, leads more than 100,000 people. The department prosecutes crimes, polices businesses. It defends laws about antitrust and the environment, and it protects civil rights. And the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals all report to that attorney general.
MARTIN: Who might be in line for this job?
JOHNSON: You know, there are a lot of names floating around from members of Congress like Senator Mike Lee of Utah. There are people like Jeff Clark, the DOJ official Trump tried to promote in late 2020. Clark advanced phony claims of election fraud. He's faced some legal discipline for that. And then there are other lawyers like Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who represented Trump in several of Trump's criminal cases. I hear Blanche might be more likely to lead the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. But another strong candidate is Mark Paoletta. He's a longtime D.C. lawyer who's been advising the transition. He's also very close to just Justice Clarence Thomas.
MARTIN: So what are some of the top priorities for the new Trump DOJ?
JOHNSON: Special Counsel Jack Smith is already unwinding the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump. Trump has said he plans to pardon people involved in the January 6 riot at the Capitol. But there are a bunch of other things unrelated the president might try to do, and they're wide ranging because the DOJ is involved in so many things. Here are just a few of them. He could try to cut federal grant funds for local police who won't go along with his immigration plans. He could try to enforce the Comstock Act and criminalize the use of the mail for abortion medication and equipment. He could restart the engine of federal capital punishment for the 40 or so people on federal death row. And some conservative advisers have also suggested trying to overhaul the FBI to try to make its director accountable to more junior officials inside the Justice Department with more political control.
MARTIN: Can you talk a little bit about that whole question of who the FBI is accountable to? Because Donald Trump appointed the current FBI director in 2017, but it's my understanding that his term isn't contemporaneous with the president's, and that's intentional because they don't want the FBI director to be subject to political pressures per se. So how would this work?
JOHNSON: Yeah, the 10-year term was imposed by Congress after J. Edgar Hoover lorded over the Bureau for decades and decades, and the thinking was he got too involved in politics in his own personal vendettas. Donald Trump appointed the current FBI director, Chris Wray, only after he fired Jim Comey. And the FBI has only one political appointee, the director. Chris Wray has now served just over seven years, so he has some time left, but Trump has had a really tense relationship with Wray. Lawyers close to Trump expect him to dismiss the FBI director sometime next year. As for the FBI director, Chris Wray, I'm told he continues to oversee the day-to-day operations, and he's actively planning with his team to lead the FBI into next year and beyond. It sounds to me like if Trump wants Wray to go, he's going to have to fire him.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you.
JOHNSON: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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