Exclusive-US scraps Justice Department task force that took on cartels, documents show
By Sarah N. Lynch
Washington (Reuters) -ABD Justice Department is closing an office aiming to alleviate drug cartels and racial tensions in a restructuring that leaves the nation’s best drugs and arms law enforcement officers, Reuters Show.
According to the documents, the most comprehensive reorganization approved by Doj in September in September will cut about 275 positions of the Chief Public Prosecutor Pam Bondi, which he approved in September, and will lead to an involuntary re -appointment of approximately 140 employees.
Other Government Documents seen by Reuters, letters “Reduce strength” to employees whose roles will be affected in the units to be closed early this week.
Doj said that changes were designed to “promote productivity and effective management”. The plan received criticism from the democrats of congress and the former department employees who said that they could harm critical work.
The Ministry of Justice Press Office, whose staff was limited due to the closure of the government, did not respond to the request for comments.
President Donald Trump’s administration launched a comprehensive campaign to rebuild the federal government, while cutting international aid and environmental regulations sharply, he directed a wide variety of federal resources to immigration pressures.
Documents do not include a plan reported in March to unite the Drug Application Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This idea faced a two -party response in the Congress, the resistance from DEA and ATF employees, and both arms control and opposition from arms rights organizations.
It was not clear whether the merger could be re -evaluated in the future.
The plan approves the closure of organized crime -pmedy -off office forces, an inter -institutional office led by the prosecutor, which was created during the 1980s Ronald Reagan’s coping with large drug cartels.
It has also been closing the community relations service, which is a unit that helps Americans access justice aid known as office to access justice for 60 years in the United States.
In addition, according to the records seen by Reuters, the tax division combines the department to penalties and civilians with a movement that would cost at least $ 3.1 million.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, sitting in the panels panel that helps to determine the budget of the Ministry of Justice, said in his September 24 letter that he objected to all changes to the department and accused his department of making changes without congress approval.
“Despite a lack of open approval, the department still proposed many controversial expenditures.” “This is not normal.”
Stacey Young, a former department lawyer who founded Justice Connection, a former department lawyer, said that the department could prevent the law enforcement task, including drug prosecution.
“Americans will feel the damage of this administration’s bent and burned approach to administration,” he said. “This is not a restructuring – some of the most vital works of Doj.”
Organized crime, the effort to close the task of applying drugs, according to the sources familiar to the issue, the Trump administration is in accordance with the priorities of maintaining major drug trafficking organizations such as Sinaloa Kartel, and surprised former officials.
According to the documents, other changes in the restructuring plan, the US Marshals service as a US representative for the international law enforcement alliance Enterpol is the unification of the DGJ office.
Meanwhile, in the Penalty Department, Doj combines drug cases and two parts of the money laundering cases. The offices dealing with criminal consumer protection cases and human trafficking prosecution will also be combined to the penalty department.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Regulation by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
