Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to ‘completely eliminate’ cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned.

Bondi was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday night as attorney general of the United States and was sworn in on Wednesday. 

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi’s first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership. 

Bondi issued a directive regarding ‘zealous advocacy.’ Bondi said DOJ attorneys’ responsibilities include ‘aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges.’ 

‘The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,’ the memo states. 

‘When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers,’ the memo continues. 

Bondi, in the memo, states that ‘any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.’ 

Bondi is set to establish the ‘Weaponization Working Group,’ which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of ‘politicized justice.’ 

The working group’s first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and the civil fraud case brought against Trump and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI’s targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department’s targeting of parents at school board meetings; and abuses Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act. 

Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorney’s offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate —specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes. 

Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department ‘re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty.’ 

Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are ‘not sufficiently in line with President Trump’s death penalty executive order.’ 

The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department’s view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions. 

In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the ‘most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death.’ 

Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers that had their death sentences commuted. 

As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to ‘completely eliminate’ the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. 

Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders. 

Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some ‘bureaucratic approvals and reviews’ in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism, or aiding the operations of cartels. 

Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be ‘further empowered and elevated’ to the Office of the Attorney General. Their missions are expected to expand—specifically Vulcan’s—with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua. 

Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities. 

Bondi has also directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens. 

She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary. 

Meanwhile, Bondi will also create a new Joint Task Force on October 7 focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also ‘achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led anti-Semitism.’ 

The task force on Oct. 7 will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate anti-Semitism in the United States. 

Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel ‘significantly experienced in investigating terrorism.’ 

Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs—specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines ‘solely on merit.’ 

Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to ‘fair admission practices.’ 

Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that ‘politics has to be taken out of this system.’ 

Bondi told lawmakers in January that the ‘partisanship, the weaponization’ at the Justice Department ‘will be gone.’ 

‘America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said. 

Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump, after Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’ 

And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review. 

After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called President Donald Trump’s proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza a ‘bold step’ toward restoring peace in the region.

‘Of course, the initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted with surprise by many, but cheered by, I think, people all around the world,’ Johnson said during his weekly press conference on Wednesday. 

‘Why? Because that area is so dangerous, and he’s taking bold, decisive action to try to ensure the peace of that region.’

Johnson also noted that conditions in Gaza needed to change in order to avoid another attack similar to Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel and killed more than 1,000 people. 

He stopped short of fully endorsing the action, however, and was later pressed again on whether he believed the U.S. should take control of Gaza.

‘This is a bold, a decisive move. And I think you have to do something to eradicate the threat to Israel. Here’s the problem – if you leave Gaza in its current form, there’s always a risk of another Oct. 7. There’s always a risk of proxies of Iran, all these terrorist organizations whose stated, openly stated goal is to eliminate Israel as a state,’ Johnson said.

‘So it just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer. I think that’s logical. I think it follows common sense.’

Trump told reporters, ‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,’ during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site,’ he said.

Trump said it would ‘create economic development that would supply unlimited numbers of jobs’ and the U.S. would turn the war-torn region into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’

Johnson said he would discuss the matter during his own meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.

In 1992, Francis Fukuyama penned his famous ‘End of History’ essay in which he argued that former President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War victory had ushered in an age in which free market democracies would flourish almost by osmosis with a light, guiding American hand.

Thirty-five years on, after 9/11, after watching Communist China become a global powerhouse and Russia grow more belligerent, it is obvious that this careful management of neo-liberalism has failed. What we need is a new beginning of history, starting with President Donald Trump.

Of course, we all see the stark difference between the vibrant Trump and his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, the first commander in chief who looked less alive in office than his Disney animatronic in the Hall of Presidents. But it’s more than that.

Every president since Reagan has essentially been a caretaker for Fukuyama’s vision of a world order in which the U.S., as the undisputed leader, puts its interests last, confident that ‘our way of life’ will inevitably dominate the globe.

The Bushes, Clintons and Obamas did not shape the world so much as they sought to preserve the shape created by Reagan’s Cold War victory. Today, we need Trump to see foreign affairs with fresh eyes, and so he is.

On Tuesday evening, the president shocked the world, and maybe even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he was sharing a press conference, by suggesting that the United States should take over Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East.

On the domestic political left, and internationally, the idea of American Gaza was met with scoffing scorn and incredulity. But given the horrible conditions under which those in Gaza live and the intolerable threat they pose to Israel, we must ask why that is.

The answer is that, while the global institutions which neo-liberals created and rely on would never agree to Trump’s Gaza solution, these are the same groups that have failed to secure peace in the Middle East for decades.

Is trying something new so crazy? After all, it is the terrorists who favor the slow and steady status quo of death and destruction. Why give it to them?

And it isn’t just in the Levant that Trump is making waves. Regarding strategically vital Greenland and the economically vital Panama Canal, the new Trump Doctrine is not just that American interests should come first, but that putting them first actually benefits the entire world.

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

Former President Obama took such a dim view of American moral power that he preferred our nation lead from behind.

Under these caretaker presidents, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was designed to burnish our reputation abroad, instead spent millions criticizing Western Colonialism and telling Africans they aren’t gay enough.

Reagan won the Cold War by keeping his eyes fixed on the aspirational America of the shining city upon a hill. Fukuyama mistakenly believed we had already achieved it and moved in.

Trump’s shining city on a hill may be a hotel and casino in Gaza, or a submarine base in Greenland. It might be freer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But what it will not be is more of the same.

It was Nietzsche who wrote, ‘In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak; but for that one must have long legs.’ For too long, American foreign policy has labored in the valleys of conflict and discord, always waiting for the safest and easiest way to climb out, never quite managing to.

Like Reagan, Trump knows how to walk from peak to peak and how to ignore the naysayers who say change is impossible. 

At the end of history, one can only look backwards. Perhaps this is why we are a society of sequels and franchises rather than original stories, of old well-worn foreign policy paths, not new blazing trails.

At the beginning of history, all things are possible. There is no cynical past to foreclose on innovation and new ideas. 

Trump has no intention of managing the slow decline of America, nor simply standing athwart that decline yelling ‘Stop!’ No, for the first time in a long time, the American president sees new paths and visions for our nation, and under her leadership, for the entire world.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee slammed Democrats on the panel this week for their attempts to schedule a second confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, describing the effort Tuesday night as a ‘delay tactic’ designed to stall Patel from taking the reins of the sprawling law enforcement agency. 

In a statement Tuesday night, Grassley criticized what he described as the ‘baseless’ attempt by Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democrats on the panel to push for a second hearing, noting that Patel testified for more than five hours before the committee and disclosed to the panel ‘thousands of pages’ of records, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions. 

‘No one was convinced by the minority’s baseless efforts to mischaracterize and malign Kash Patel,’ Grassley said. ‘It’s additionally outrageous to assert that a nominee should come before the Senate to answer for government actions that occurred prior to their time at an agency.’

‘Further hearings on his nomination are unnecessary,’ Grassley concluded.

He said the committee still intends to vote on Patel’s confirmation as FBI director as early as next week.  

Grassley’s remarks – and his unrelenting support for Trump’s FBI director nominee – come after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote Tuesday, citing what he described as ‘apparent falsehoods’ in Patel’s testimony last week, as well as the ‘recent removals and reassignments of FBI career civil servants.’

The letter, signed by all 10 Democrats on the panel, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote until Patel agreed to testify for a second time under oath about the recent removals and reassignments of FBI civil servants; and until DOJ agrees to provide the panel with volume two of former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report that refers or pertains to Patel’s testimony or actions, among other things.

‘Given the gravity of these matters, which bear directly on Mr. Patel’s integrity, his suitability to lead the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, and his regard for safeguarding classified information, we ask that the Chairman schedule an additional hearing for Mr. Patel to explain these matters in person,’ the Democrats said.

The letter – and Grassley’s swift dismissal of the effort – comes amid two new lawsuits from anonymous FBI agents that were filed separately this week. Both lawsuits sought to block any public identification of FBI employees who were involved in the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots after a list of agents involved and their roles was shared with DOJ leadership Tuesday afternoon in keeping with an earlier request from acting U.S. deputy attorney general, Emil Bove.

Both groups of FBI agents asked the court for emergency injunctive relief to block the names or identities of FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations from being shared, citing concerns that the probe or any retaliatory measures carried out as a result could have a chilling effect on the work of the FBI or spark retaliatory efforts inside the bureau. 

Lawyers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent’s Association, a voluntary professional association representing more than 14,000 active and retired FBI special agents, told reporters Tuesday night that they see the Jan. 6 request as a ‘prelude’ to potential adverse action or mass layoffs in the bureau, citing fears that agents name could be subject to threats, harassment or targeting either by the public or inside the bureau.

To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved.

One retired FBI agent also urged calm, noting to Fox News in an interview that the acting director and deputy director of the FBI still remain in place. 

This person also stressed that the Jan. 6 investigation and the FBI personnel involved in investigating each case ‘fully followed Bureau and DOJ guidelines,’ and that violations of federal statutes were ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt in federal courts of law.’

After President Donald Trump announced that America ‘will take over the Gaza strip,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., pushed back against the idea, suggesting that the move would betray the ‘America First’ principle Trump voters expected.

During his inauguration speech last month, Trump unequivocally declared that throughout his administration he will ‘put America first,’ echoing a longstanding pillar of his political philosophy, which he also expressed during his 2017 inaugural address.

But Paul is throwing a red flag in response to Trump’s newly unveiled Gaza plans.

‘The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians. I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,’ Paul declared in a Wednesday post on X.

The senator made the comment in response to a post in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Tuesday, ‘Gaza MUST BE FREE from Hamas. As @POTUS shared today, the United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again. Our pursuit is one of lasting peace in the region for all people.’

While delivering remarks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu on Tuesday, Trump said that Palestinians should be settled outside the Gaza Strip, and that the U.S. will transform the region, which he described as a ‘demolition site.’

‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,’ Trump declared, saying, ‘we’ll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site … level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.’

‘I do see a long term ownership position,’ Trump said of the region.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., called Trump’s proposal ‘ethnic cleansing.’

‘This president is openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal. He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing,’ she declared in a post on X.

In a post on another X account she declared, ‘Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. This president can only spew this fanatical bulls— because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.’

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., welcomed the president’s remarks.

‘This is what the leader of the free world looks like, folks. President Trump campaigned on securing peace in Gaza, and he’s doing just that. Promises made, promises kept — it’ll never get old,’ she said in a tweet.

The Palestinian terrorist group whose attack on Israel launched the war in Gaza is now calling President Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to rebuild the territory a ‘recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.’ 

Trump sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East after announcing last night that the U.S. will ‘take over the Gaza Strip,’ level it and rebuild the area. 

‘Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,’ Hamas told the Associated Press Wednesday. 

Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, led to the Israeli military entering the Gaza Strip in their mission to eliminate the Palestinian terrorist group. As a result, the conflict has rendered much of the territory uninhabitable. The U.N. estimated late last year that 1.9 million people – around 90% of Gaza’s population – have been internally displaced. 

Hamas added to the AP that Trump’s plan is a ‘recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.’ 

‘What President Trump stated about his intention to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip outside it and the United States’ control over the Strip by force is a crime against humanity,’ a senior Hamas official also told Fox News on Wednesday.

‘We demand that the mediators, especially the United States, oblige the occupation to implement the ceasefire agreement in its three stages without procrastination or manipulation, as we are committed to implementing the agreement as long as the occupation commits to it, and any manipulation in implementing the agreement may cause it to collapse,’ the official added.

Trump announced in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Tuesday that ‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,’

 ‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site,’ he continued.

‘Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,’ Trump also said. ‘Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.’ 

Fox News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst said the timing of Trump’s comments ‘raises huge questions about the current ceasefire agreement that is supposed to see the remaining hostages released from Gaza.’

‘There are dozens of living hostages inside the Gaza Strip right now being held by Hamas, the group that is currently in control of Gaza. And it would not be surprising if tomorrow, Hamas threatens to step back from the current agreement or puts more pressure at the negotiating table,’ Yingst said in a video posted on X last night.

‘But the timing of these remarks is very significant remembering that these hostages remain in Hamas captivity and Palestinians being removed from Gaza has been a red line not only for Hamas but for regional countries including Egypt, Jordan and others as it relates to the Palestinian people there,’ he added. 

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump urged Iran to begin negotiating with the U.S. for a ‘nuclear peace agreement,’ downplaying the possibility of a devastating military strike on the Islamic nation.

Trump made the statement on social media Wednesday morning, reaffirming the U.S. position that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. It comes just one day after Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

‘I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED,’ Trump wrote. 

‘I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!’ he added.

The call for negotiations comes after Trump raised eyebrows Tuesday night by saying the U.S. will ‘take over’ control of the Gaza Strip.

‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,’ Trump stated. ‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.’

Netanyahu praised Trump’s ability to ‘think outside the box’ during their joint press conference.

Hamas also wrote a statement criticizing Trump’s comments just hours after his meeting with Netanyahu.

‘We reject Trump’s statements in which he said that the residents of the Gaza Strip have no choice but to leave, and we consider them a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region,’ the group said.

Hamas has recently reaffirmed control over the Gaza Strip following the start of the ceasefire and has said they will not release hostages without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal.

‘Squad’ member Ayanna Pressley blasted business magnate Elon Musk as a ‘Nazi nepo baby’ and ‘godless, lawless billionaire’ during remarks at a rally.

She also seemed to take a jab at Tesla’s Cybertruck.

‘Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire, who no one elected. Elon, this is the American people. This is not your trashy Cybertruck that you can just dismantle, pick apart, and sell the pieces of,’ she declared.

A video shared on the congresswoman’s @RepPressley X account shows her and others chanting, ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go.’

In a post on the lawmaker’s @AyannaPressley account, Pressley had called Musk ‘a Nazi nepo baby who breaks everything he touches,’ claiming, ‘Right now he’s locked himself in a room with grandpa’s Social Security check.’

Musk backed President Donald Trump during the 2024 election and is now spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to expose government waste.

‘Doge has not looked at, nor is there any interest in, private financial data. What would we even do with it? The outgoing payment review process just looks at potential fraud and wasteful spending to organizations. Corrupt politicians are the ones complaining. I wonder why?’ Musk has noted in a post on X.

The Treasury Department has noted that ‘the ongoing review of Treasury’s systems is not resulting in the suspension or rejection of any payment instructions submitted to Treasury by other federal agencies across the government.’

‘Currently, Treasury staff members working with Tom Krause, a Treasury employee, will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment,’ the department noted. 

‘Mr. Krause is conducting this effort in coordination with veteran career Treasury officials, and all operational processes continue to be conducted only by career Treasury staff in accordance with all standard security, safety, and privacy standards,’ Treasury noted. ‘In order to allow him to perform this function, he has been hired as an expert/consultant by the federal government and designated in a role commonly used across Administrations—a ‘special government employee’ —pursuant to applicable law.’