Top Justice officials who played key roles in January 6 cases now leading ‘weaponization’ review

On January 6, 2021, Emil Bove sat in lower Manhattan, watching on television as a pro-Trump mob invaded the US Capitol, violently attacking police and temporarily causing Congress to suspend its certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

On January 6, 2021, Emil Bove sat in lower Manhattan, watching on television as a pro-Trump mob invaded the US Capitol, violently attacking police and temporarily causing Congress to suspend its certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Bove at the time helped to lead the counterterrorism section in the US attorney’s office for New York’s southern district, and he was instrumental in helping agents try to track down dozens of Capitol riot suspects, according to two former US law enforcement officials involved in the investigation. Four years later, Bove is helping to lead a new Justice Department effort called the Weaponization Working Group that is tasked with examining current and former prosecutors and FBI employees. According to a memo Bove wrote, the FBI “actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as ‘a grave national injustice’” by investigating the January 6 US Capitol riot. By that description, Bove should be among those whose work is under review. Instead he’s one of several former personal attorneys for President Donald Trump who are taking the helm of the Justice Department. Bove, who left the US attorney’s office in late 2021 to become a member of Trump’s criminal defense team, has been tapped to serve as principal associate deputy attorney general. Bove is not the only one among DOJ’s new leadership with a professional history that intersects with January 6 or Trump’s criminal defense – who are now involved in efforts to purge the department of officials and FBI agents who worked on criminal cases related to Trump and to investigate state-level prosecutors who brought cases against him.