Two former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials condemned President Donald Trump’s politicization of the DOJ at a Georgetown University event Oct. 27.
Xochitl Hinojosa, who served as director of the Office of Public Affairs under former President Joe Biden, and Sarah Isgur, who served in the same role during the first Trump administration, criticized Trump’s involvement in the prosecution of government officials and raised flags about a lack of accountability within the DOJ. The Trump administration has targeted political opponents through the DOJ, firing attorneys who prosecuted Trump and calling for prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a lawsuit against Trump in 2024.
Isgur said the last two presidential administrations have placed enormous stress on the DOJ.
“There is no question that the last eight years have hurt the Department of Justice,” Isgur said at the event. “The American political system is putting far too much pressure on law enforcement and asking it to moderate and resolve disputes.”
Hinojosa said her job was more difficult as a result of accusations that the DOJ was politicizing its casework.
“The justice department cannot talk about their cases, and that’s probably one of my biggest frustrations about being the head of Public Affairs, because attacks would come your way and someone like Donald Trump would say, ‘This is politicized,’” Hinojosa said at the event. “Whenever you have politics out there, and someone like Donald Trump with a megaphone, it’s very hard to push back on some of that narrative.”
The director of the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs acts as a liaison between the department and the media and informs the public of the department’s proceedings.
Glenn Thrush, a DOJ reporter at The New York Times who moderated the event, said the current DOJ is unprecedentedly intertwined with the president.
“What makes this current situation so unique, and, in the minds of some critics of this administration, dangerous, is the degree to which President Trump and his top domestic policy advisor, Stephen Miller, directly control the actions of the department,” Thrush said at the event. “So the president himself has asserted direct control over the department.”
Thrush added that though the role of attorney general, head of the DOJ, is traditionally independent, Trump’s current dynamic with Attorney General Pam Bondi, a prosecutor who served on his first impeachment defense team, represents a marked change.
“Talking about the Justice Department as being under Attorney General Pam Bondi is really a bit of a misnomer, because the attorney generals themselves are reared with this tradition of independence in the department,” Thrush said.
Isgur said the DOJ derives its power from the president, but the president should not direct the department in prosecution.
“The Department of Justice’s powers derive from the president, they are not independent of the president,” Isgur said. “I really reject the idea of an independent justice department. That being said, there is a difference between setting enforcement priorities because of political accountability, and directing who should be prosecuted.”
Hinojosa said Trump has deviated from traditional procedure by directing the DOJ on whom to prosecute, a role typically reserved for the public integrity subsection of the department, which investigates federal crimes impacting government integrity.
“The public integrity section should make a recommendation on which cases have evidence and where they believe they are going to be successful,” Hinojosa said. “It should be the career officials who are prosecuting the cases against politicians. What is happening now is that is being decided by Donald Trump.”
Hinojosa said checks on the DOJ occur through oversight and investigations by William Blier, acting inspector general.
“There are several ways the administration can face accountability, and one is through congressional oversight,” Hinojosa said. “Another is through investigations by the inspector general, who is supposed to be an independent sort of watchdog within these agencies.”
Isgur said the DOJ lacks oversight amid the government shutdown due to congressional inactivity.
“Most of what is broken in our system right now is because we don’t have three functioning branches of government. Congress has left the field,” Isgur said. “Congress doesn’t do anything, because there’s no political pressure anymore.”
Hinojosa said Trump has replaced many inspectors general with his own allies, shielding the DOJ from checks on its authority.
“Inspector generals across the Congress, across the agencies, have largely been replaced by Trump loyalists, so there is no accountability of this administration whatsoever,” Hinojosa said. “If there is any wrongdoing in the justice department, there is no way for them to be held accountable.”
