Matt Gaetz, who savaged the Justice Department and the F.B.I. as Donald J. Trump’s off-leash political guard dog, faces an uphill fight to becoming attorney general. But his selection has already achieved one desired effect: intimidating an already-frazzled federal law enforcement work force.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to exact revenge against officials who prosecuted him. That threat is particularly acute for the F.B.I., which has been in his cross hairs since it opened an investigation into his campaign’s connection to Russia in 2016.
Mr. Gaetz, a former Florida Republican congressman who was the focus of a federal investigation into sex-trafficking allegations, has positioned himself as the right guy for that job, an avenger who will tear down and rebuild a Justice Department that twice indicted Mr. Trump, with the close cooperation of the bureau’s agents.
“People trusted the F.B.I. more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are,” Mr. Gaetz told Christopher A. Wray, the bureau’s director, during a testy oversight hearing in 2023, invoking the name of its imperious and secretive founding director. “And the reason is because you don’t give straight answers.”
Whatever the outcome of his nomination, the fact that he was selected at all was intended to send an unmistakable message to the nonpolitical career officials who form the backbone of federal law enforcement: Get in line or get out — and maybe get a lawyer.
All of this has sent a wave of uncertainty throughout Justice Department and F.B.I. headquarters, perhaps unlike anything experienced by the federal law enforcement establishment since Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, in 2017.
Justice Department officials involved in the prosecutions of Mr. Trump believed he would come after them if he won office. So, in recent months, some quietly took a step to protect themselves: increasing their insurance to pay lawyers to defend against legal action over their work.
Since Mr. Trump was elected to a second term, career prosecutors, including members of the special counsel Jack Smith’s office, have contacted private-sector law firms for jobs, even though their status as career civil service employees provides them with some protection against being summarily fired.
At a white-shoe law firm in Washington, an administrator estimated that partners had received two dozen résumés from department lawyers since Election Day, then quickly called back to say it was closer to three dozen. A former prosecutor working at another firm said he received three calls on Wednesday afternoon from current officials hoping to get out fast.
Even before Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Gaetz, the F.B.I. was girding for retribution and upheaval. Mr. Wray, a Trump appointee who has become a target of Mr. Trump’s team, has said he intends to continue in the job. But leadership changes have already begun, with the departure of Mr. Wray’s veteran chief of staff, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
What is going on at the bureau and the department is not yet a mass exodus, and not quite a mass panic. Mr. Trump’s return could usher in a new round of chaos and an ideological U-turn for the Justice Department’s predominantly liberal work force in Washington.
Yet many employees have been through it before and have told friends on the outside that many of the threats leveled against them are empty bluster.
Nonetheless, times are changing. Mr. Trump’s aides have had cordial transition discussions with department officials. But they have not signed a memorandum of understanding that would compel political appointees to submit to standard F.B.I. background checks, instead offering reports prepared by private vendors, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If the department’s top leadership remains in flux, its agenda is coming into clearer focus through a series of blunt and explicit warnings issued by a senior member of the Trump transition team at the department, the conservative lawyer Mark Paoletta.
On social media over the past week, he outlined priorities that included granting pardons and commutations for those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, expanding deportations, rolling back regulation of technology companies and further weakening affirmative action.
“Career DOJ lawyers must be fully committed to implementing President Trump’s policies or they should leave or be fired,” Mr. Paoletta, wrote on Wednesday.
That message stands in contrast to the approach adopted by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who stressed his independence from the White House after four chaotic years under Mr. Trump.
Despite baseless claims by Republicans that Mr. Garland conspired with President Biden to destroy Mr. Trump, in reality their relationship was distant, particularly after Mr. Garland appointed special counsels to investigate Mr. Biden’s retention of classified documents and the president’s son Hunter Biden.
Mr. Smith, for his part, has told people close to him that he plans to finish his work and shutter his operation before Mr. Trump takes office — to avoid being fired by Mr. Trump and to give his team time to settle into new lives before the new administration arrives.
The small cadre of career prosecutors who work with Mr. Smith could, technically, remain on the department’s payroll, but almost all are expected to leave, according to current and former officials.
Mr. Trump’s threats, vague as they have been, extend beyond his own investigations. He has also promised to use the department’s sweeping authority to investigate and imprison political enemies, and his allies in the transition and in Congress have made it clear they believe the department should execute his wishes without question.
To prepare for the possibilities, a group of high-profile Washington lawyers has begun to discuss creating an informal legal network that would offer pro bono representation to former officials targeted by Trump allies to ensure that they do not incur financial hardships, according to two lawyers involved in the discussions.
Their focus would be to help Mr. Smith, his team and other department officials. But it could also extend to members of the team for the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III who oversaw the Russia investigation if Trump appointees go after them, one of the lawyers said.
As Mr. Paoletta suggested on social media, the department could bring termination cases against noncompliant career employees, including those with significant policymaking authority who are essential to keeping the department running.
Kevin Owen, an employment lawyer in Washington who has clients in the department, said mass firings of the type threatened by some Trump allies “will be harder than they think,” given civil service rules. But the new attorney general will have broad authority to reassign, marginalize and relocate career staff members, which could force dozens of employees to opt out rather than remain.
Despite Mr. Trump’s threats, it remains unclear what steps his appointees can take to punish those who worked on the case about his handling of classified documents in Florida and the case on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington.
Some officials believe he could appoint of special counsels to investigate Biden administration officials, or initiate some other kind of inquiry. Others are bracing for a more predictable eventuality: a fresh round of exhaustive Republican congressional investigations aimed at making public internal communications among department and bureau employees.
Whether Mr. Trump plans to fire Mr. Wray once he assumes office on Jan. 20 is unclear, but Mr. Trump’s dismissal of Mr. Wray’s predecessor, Mr. Comey, badly shook the F.B.I.
Mr. Wray, who has served as director since August 2017, has given no indication that he intends leave before his 10-year terms ends.
In an interview with NBC News in April, Mr. Wray said he would like to continue in the job regardless of whether Mr. Trump were re-elected, but he cautioned only if he could continue to follow department rules and norms.
Mr. Wray appears to have taken steps intended to provide stability and continuity as the bureau faces an uncertain future.
After his longest-serving chief of staff, Jonathan Lenzner, the former acting U.S. attorney in Maryland, decided to step down, Mr. Wray replaced him with a familiar face, Corey Ellis, a former U.S. attorney in South Carolina.
Mr. Lenzner, who had long planned to depart, joined Mr. Wray’s staff in January 2022, helped the director navigate many crucial moments and served as a key liaison to the Justice Department. He has also pushed Mr. Wray to have a more public profile after the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation caused the bureau to come under repeated and sustained attacks from Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress.
On a call with senior agents last week, Mr. Wray disclosed Mr. Lenzner’s departure, praising the role he had played in “turning the tides and helping us go on the offensive.”
Mr. Ellis is expected to turn to his past experience as a guide: He previously served as chief of staff to Mr. Wray and to Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general during the first Trump administration.
In addition, Mr. Wray has extended the service of his longtime deputy director, Paul Abbate, past his mandatory retirement age of 57, a rare occurrence at those levels of the F.B.I.
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