On her first day as U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi took aim at programs designed to fight pollution in communities of color and low-income areas amid a broader reshuffling and reduction of Justice Department staff focused on environmental enforcement and policy.
In one of her first memos to DOJ staff Wednesday, Bondi ordered each component of the department to confirm by March 15 termination of all environmental justice programs, offices and jobs — and ensure that those efforts do not continue under another name. The directive also required identification of federal contractors that have worked on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives for the department.
Bondi ordered the department to rescind all “materials that encouraged or permitted race- or sex-based preferences as a method of compliance with federal civil rights laws.”
Those materials, she said in a memo obtained by POLITICO, “will be replaced with new guidance affirming that equal treatment under the law means avoiding identity-based considerations in employment, procurement, contracting, or other Department decisions.”
Bondi arrives at DOJ as the department is undergoing major staff cuts and reshuffling.
On Friday, a section of DOJ’s environment division was given notice that their office of nearly 20 people would be eliminated and that they would be ineligible for other positions within the department or anywhere else in government, according to Gary Jonesi, a former EPA enforcement attorney, who left his post last month after 40 years with the agency.
The office — the Law and Policy Section within DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division — is responsible for coordination across ENRD, legislation review and ethics advising. The section also has a hand in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and monitoring of citizen suits under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
“These are outstanding career lawyers who have worked for administrations of both parties and understand who gets to make policy. They are not loose cannons,” Jonesi said. “By firing them and transferring top environment division managers at the Justice Department, the Trump administration has blown any possibility of building trust with remaining staff who could have helped the administration carry out its agenda.”
A spokesperson for ENRD declined to comment on Bondi’s memo and the notice to the Law and Policy Section.
DOJ last month also placed the head of its Office of Environmental Justice and other attorneys on administrative leave, reassigned environment section chiefs to work on immigration and revoked job offers for recent law school graduates headed to work with ENRD.
“The messages for ENRD’s career lawyers are clear,” wrote three law professors and former ENRD staffers in a Tuesday blog post. “Depth of experience, independent judgment, and keen legal skills are no longer valued. Dedication to upholding the Constitution and the Rule of Law is irrelevant. Nonpartisanship is disloyalty. ENRD is expendable.”
They noted that while ENRD’s work sometimes does not align with the policy preferences of the administration in power, the division itself has no political agenda. They said hearing honest critiques from DOJ’s legal experts is crucial to avoiding pitfalls in court.
“If the dismantling of ENRD proceeds, the new Trump administration will find itself with a substantially diminished reservoir of expert counsel,” the law professors wrote. “Those attorneys who remain also could be reluctant to provide candid analyses for fear of being labeled disloyal.”
This reporter can be reached on Signal at pamelaking.56.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated Bondi’s first day at the Justice Department. She arrived and issued memos Wednesday.
Reporter Kevin Bogardus contributed.
