Attorney General Pam Bondi has officially dismantled a longstanding FBI enforcement policy designed to protect U.S. elections from foreign interference, a move that has alarmed national security experts, NBC News reported Thursday.
The order, buried within a series of more than a dozen policy memos Bondi issued upon taking office, “disbands the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and pares back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), despite years of warnings by U.S. intelligence agencies that foreign malign influence operations involving disinformation were a growing and dangerous threat.”
The policy shift means that prosecutions under FARA, which require individuals working on behalf of foreign governments to disclose their activities, will now be “limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” All other cases will be handled through “civil enforcement, regulatory initiatives, and public guidance.”
The move has drawn criticism, particularly because multiple Trump allies have been prosecuted under FARA. Most recently, political operatives Barry Bennett and Douglas Watts were charged with running undisclosed influence campaigns on behalf of Middle Eastern governments, including Qatar.
The now-disbanded Foreign Influence Task Force was originally established in 2017 during Trump’s first term, following mounting evidence that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. Despite extensive documentation of Russian interference in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, Trump has repeatedly dismissed the findings, falsely calling it a “hoax.”
Bondi’s decision is just one of several controversial changes to Justice Department policy she has made since taking office. Among them is the creation of a “weaponization working group” tasked with reviewing past prosecutions and civil suits against Trump, with an eye toward overturning cases that the administration deems politically motivated.
Additionally, Bondi has warned DOJ officials that failure to appear in court to defend Trump administration directives could result in termination.
Trump has further escalated the Justice Department’s shift in priorities by signing an executive order directing Bondi to investigate and prosecute “anti-Christian bias.” Critics argue that this move is part of a broader effort to use federal law enforcement to advance ideological goals while curtailing investigations into foreign interference and corruption.
As these sweeping policy changes take effect, concerns are mounting over the integrity of U.S. election security and the broader implications for federal law enforcement’s independence.