The Department of Justice is overhauling its Weaponization Working Group after a year of stalled prosecutions. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—President Trump's former defense counsel in both the Manhattan hush money case and the classified documents prosecution—is assuming direct oversight.
Ed Martin, the group's former leader, was removed after administration officials concluded he was, according to the New York Times:
ineffective in pursuing cases Mr. Trump has demanded be acted upon immediately
Martin will continue serving as Pardon Attorney. The group itself hasn't been particularly productive—it hasn't published a single page of findings since its creation.
The Weaponization Working Group emerged from a Day One memo directing the Department of Justice to investigate "all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States over the last four years." Translation: examine whether the Biden administration turned federal law enforcement into a political weapon, Paywalled reported.
The group's mandate was sweeping. Its output has been thin.
Now, according to CNN, the restructured team is:
expected to start meeting daily with the goal of producing results in the next two months
Blanche's involvement signals that the administration is done waiting. The deputy attorney general prosecuted no one during his time as Trump's private defense attorney—but he saw firsthand how the machinery of prosecution can be deployed against political opponents. He resigned from his partnership at a New York law firm in 2023 after management objected to his representing the former president. By 2024, he had purchased a home in Palm Beach and registered as a Republican.
The highest-profile subjects of the Weaponization Working Group have been New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
James, who pursued civil fraud charges against Trump while he was a private citizen and political candidate, became a subject of federal prosecution. Comey stands accused of lying to Congress in 2020.
Both cases collapsed—at least temporarily.
Federal judges dismissed the prosecutions, ruling that lead prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. After Halligan's disqualification, the Justice Department twice attempted to bring charges against James before grand juries. Both times, grand juries refused to approve the charges.
The department has appealed the dismissals to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Alina Habba, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, was similarly disqualified from her role; that appeal to the Third Circuit has so far been unsuccessful.
Then there's Adam Schiff.
The California senator—formerly Congressman Schiff, the face of the first Trump impeachment—is under DOJ investigation for allegedly lying on mortgage applications. According to reports, different forms listed his residence as Maryland's D.C. suburbs or Burbank, California, depending on the document.
This is the same Adam Schiff who spent years on cable news insisting he had seen evidence of Russian collusion that was never produced. The same one who led the charge for Trump's first impeachment. Now he's answering questions about basic paperwork.
The former special counsel hasn't escaped scrutiny either.
Jack Smith—who brought both the classified documents case and the January 6 prosecution against Trump before they were dismissed—offered public testimony last month. His assessment of the current situation was blunt. Trump administration lawyers, he said:
will do everything in their power
to indict him.
President Trump has been equally direct. He has called Smith:
a criminal.
and said he ought to be:
put in prison.
Whether charges materialize remains to be seen. But Solicitor General John Sauer—a respected high court litigator with a track record of success—would handle any potential Supreme Court appeal if prosecutions are revived and challenged.
The legal setbacks for the DOJ have been procedural, not substantive.
Courts haven't ruled that James and Comey did nothing wrong. They've ruled that the prosecutors pursuing them weren't properly installed. This is a bureaucratic tripwire, not vindication.
The administration's solution is straightforward: reorganize, reassign, and appeal. The Fourth Circuit will determine whether the cases can proceed. If they can, properly appointed prosecutors will take another run.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is weighing a related question: whether President Trump can fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for cause. Cook, a liberal economist, is also under DOJ investigation for allegedly lying on mortgage applications. The Cook case raises broader questions about executive power—but if the administration prevails, it removes another obstacle to accountability across the board.
Todd Blanche now has a deadline.
The restructured Weaponization Working Group is expected to produce tangible outcomes within two months. Daily meetings. Direct oversight from the second-highest official at the Justice Department. No more drift.
The cases against James and Comey are real. The questions about Schiff's mortgage applications are real. The possibility of charges against Jack Smith is real. What hasn't been real—until now—is urgency.
For four years, conservatives watched as the Justice Department targeted a former president with criminal charges unprecedented in American history. A Manhattan district attorney. A special counsel appointed to investigate the same man twice. A sprawling federal apparatus that seemed capable of moving at lightning speed when the defendant was Donald Trump.
Now the question is whether that apparatus can be turned toward examining its own conduct.
Letitia James built a political career on prosecuting Trump. James Comey oversaw the FBI during the most controversial investigation of a presidential campaign in modern history. Adam Schiff turned congressional hearings into a personal platform for years.
Whether they broke laws in the process is a matter for prosecutors and juries—not cable news panels.
The Weaponization Working Group was created to find answers. After a year of silence, Todd Blanche is stepping in to make sure it actually does.