DOJ proposes policy aimed at limiting state bar ethics probes into its attorneys
Signage outside the US Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is proposing a new policy that would seek to limit the ability of state bar associations to launch ethics probes into DOJ attorneys, according to a new document posted Wednesday in the Federal Register.
The proposal, which comes amid growing scrutiny of the department’s attorneys and whether they’re complying with ethical obligations in enforcing the Trump administration’s agenda, would seek to empower Attorney General Pam Bondi to request that state bar investigations be suspended pending a DOJ review of any originating complaint.
In the event the state bar authorities “refuse” to suspend their investigations, the proposal says, the Justice Department “shall take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering.”
It’s not immediately clear what “appropriate action” the department could take to influence state-level proceedings, and the proposed rule does not elaborate further.
The proposal argues that the bar complaint and investigation process has been “weaponized” by political activists in recent years to ensnare officials across DOJ’s ranks into costly and time-consuming proceedings.
“This unprecedented weaponization of the State bar complaint process risks chilling the zealous advocacy by Department attorneys on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and its officers,” the proposed rule said. “That chilling effect, in turn, would interfere with the broad statutory authority of the Attorney General to manage and supervise Department attorneys.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, testifying Thursday at a hearing on whether the government is being vindictive in pursuing a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, said that no one from the White House or the Department of Justice made the decision to seek an indictment against the Salvadoran native.
The hearing comes after the federal judge overseeing the case, Waverly Crenshaw Jr., canceled the trial in the case in December and wrote in a court order that there was enough evidence to hold a hearing on the question of vindictive prosecution after the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back from detention in El Salvador to face charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.
“Who decided to seek an indictment against Abrego Garcia” a government lawyer asked Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire during Thursday’s hearing.
“I did,” McGuire testified.
McGuire said that after reviewing the body cam footage of the 2022 traffic stop, “there were things” that were similar to other human smuggling cases, including the number of individuals in the car, the lack of luggage in the vehicle, and the fact that Abrego Garcia — who was the driver — “seemed to speak on behalf of everyone else.” Abrego Garcia was not charged at that time.
“This really looked like a human smuggling case to me,” McGuire testified.
When asked about his communications with DOJ leadership, McGuire said it was normal for him to be in contact with top officials because of the high-profile immigration case involving Abrego Garcia.
In response to questions about an email from a top DOJ official to McGuire stating that the case was a “top priority,” McGuire said DOJ leadership “always” wanted to stay updated on high-profile cases.
Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security said that she felt no pressure to bring charges.
Saoud stated that as she began her preliminary investigation and obtained the video of the traffic stop in the spring, “the case started getting stronger.”
When asked by a DOJ attorney whether she felt pressured by the government to move the case toward prosecution, Saoud said no.
“We’re not swayed by political attention or political posturing,” Saoud testified.
The government is currently blocked from deporting Abrego Garcia, who was released from immigration detention in December. In a separate case last week, a federal judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain him because his 90-day detention period had expired and the government lacked a viable plan for his deportation.
The Salvadoran native, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported last March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he and his attorneys deny.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face the human smuggling charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.
After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities before being released in December.
In this June 2, 2019, file photo, a sign marking the spot of the Stonewall National monument is shown in Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York. (Epics via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The National Parks Service (NPS) removed the rainbow flag that sat on a flagpole inside the Stonewall National Monument near Christopher Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
The site was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama in June, 2016, becoming the first federal monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights.
The communications office for NPS, which is overseen by the Department of the Interior, confirmed the removal of the rainbow flag in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday morning. It said that, under federal guidance, “only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions.”
“Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance. Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs,” the statement continued.
The office of Interior Sec. Doug Burgum reiterated the sentiment in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, saying that federal policy governing flag displays “has been in place for decades,” and “recent guidance clarifies how that longstanding policy is applied consistently across NPS-managed sites.”
The pride flag inside the monument was permanently installed by NPS in 2021, and was the first pride flag to be flown over federally-funded land.
Steven Love Menendez, a New York-based advocate for LGBTQ+ rights who launched the movement for the permanent pride flag to be installed at the site in 2017, questioned the timing of its removal.
“It’s a targeted attack on the community, right? Because the flag was there. It’s not that they never gave permission for it to be erected. They did give permission for it to be erected, and now they’re using some legal language to try to make an excuse for taking it down,” Menendez said. “Why now? That’s the question the administration needs to answer. Why now? It was already up, and my response is, it’s solely based on hate.”
The Stonewall National Monument is located near the Stonewall Inn, a historic gay bar in the neighborhood that was a safe haven for many in the LGBTQ+ community in the 1960s. The bar was raided by the NYPD in 1969, leading to riots that became known as the Stonewall Uprising, which is credited with kickstarting the modern LGBTQ+ movement. The NYPD publicly apologized for the raid in 2019.
“Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights. I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country, the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us. That we are stronger together. That out of many, we are one,” Obama said in 2016.
Menendez said that, during Pride Month in 2017, he got a permit from NPS to install a pride flag inside the monument and his request was granted. Once the month was over, he noted that the flag was taken down. Menendez said he was “very passionate” about people being able to see the pride flag when they visited the monument, so he petitioned NPS in 2017 for the installation of a permanent flag.
According to ABC station in New York City, WABC, NPS was expected to participate in a dedication ceremony for a permanent rainbow flag inside the monument on National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, 2017. But amid opposition from the Trump administration, NPS withdrew from the ceremony — a move that drew widespread criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates, WABC reported.
At the dedication ceremony, the city of New York flew their own rainbow flag on city land outside the Stonewall National Monument and it wasn’t until 2021 when the Biden administration approved the permanent installation of a pride flag inside the monument on federal land. The city flag has remained in place, but the flag on federal land was removed by NPS this week.
“For me, [the rainbow flag] is a sense of pride and joy and celebration and victory for our community. … This flag represents our victory and our triumphs,” Menendez, who attended the 2017 ceremony, told ABC News on Tuesday. “[Removing] it feels like a slap in the face to the community, you know, a punch in the gut. They’re taking away our symbol of pride.”
The removal of the flag comes after President Donald Trump directed Sec. Burgum in a March 2025 executive order to remove “divisive” and “anti-American” content from museums and national parks.
Asked if the removal of the pride flag was in response to Trump’s order, NPS did not comment.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends VIP Evening of Conversation for Women’s Brain Health Initiative on October 18, 2016 in New York City. (Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — As federal investigators built a case against Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, they discovered emails they believed suggested that she was arranging young women to have sex with then Prince Andrew, according to a new review of documents released earlier this year by the Department of Justice.
A search warrant application signed just days before Maxwell’s 2020 arrest identified at least three instances when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell appeared to discuss arrangements for young women, including ahead of his official state visit to Peru in 2002.
“As for girls well I leave that entirely to you,” said an email believed to have been sent by Mountbatten-Windsor to Maxwell in Feb. 2002, signed “Masses of love A”
In another email identified by the FBI, Mountbatten-Windsor asked Maxwell about helping him find “some new inappropriate friends,” according to the search warrant affidavit.
“I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” Mountbatten-Windsor wrote in August 2001. “Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
Months later ahead of his official visit to Peru, Maxwell shared with Mountbatten-Windsor an email in which she asked an acquaintance in Peru to help find him people who are “intelligent pretty fun” and can be “to be friendly and discreet.”
“Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy. I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and that you will only introduce him to friends that you can trust and rely on to be friendly and discreet and fun,” Maxwell wrote in March 2002.
“Got it I will ring him today if I can. Love you A,” an email associated with Mountbatten-Windsor responded.
According to a search application released earlier this year by the Department of Justice, the FBI believed those emails showed Andrew and Maxwell “discussing her attempts to arrange for young females to engage in sex acts” with him. The messages were cited as part of an application to get a judge’s permission to search dozens of electronic devices seized from Epstein’s residences.
Neither the palace nor a representative for the former Prince Andrew responded to a request for comment from ABC News.
Mountbatten-Windsor has long denied any wrongdoing, and Maxwell — who was convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2021 — was never charged with arranging women for Mountbatten-Windsor. As part of that prosecution, investigators unsuccessfully sought to interview Mountbatten-Windsor in 2020.
“To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,” former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in January 2020.
The disclosure of the new documents come as police in the United Kingdom are renewing their scrutiny of Mountbatten-Windsor. In an interview with ABC News earlier this month, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said his office was seeking unredacted materials related to Epstein from the Department of Justice.
“There’s a whole range of suggested sexual allegations and those are being assessed at the moment to see whether any of them do actually merit a criminal investigation,” Rowley said.
