DOJ 'weaponization' group will shame individuals it can't charge with crimes, new head says

The conservative activist named by President Donald Trump as the head of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group" said Tuesday he planned to "name" and "shame" individuals the department determines it is unable to charge with crimes, in what would amount to a major departure from longstanding Justice Department protocols.

WASHINGTON — The conservative activist named by President Donald Trump as the head of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group" said Tuesday he planned to "name" and "shame" individuals the department determines it is unable to charge with crimes, in what would amount to a major departure from longstanding Justice Department protocols.

Ed Martin described himself at a press conference as the "captain" of the group that is investigating prosecutors who launched past investigations into Trump and his allies.

“There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people. And if they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them," Martin said. "And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed. And that’s a fact. That’s the way things work. And so that’s, that’s how I believe the job operates.”

During Trump's first tenure, the justification given for Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey was that Comey had given a press conference in which he released "derogatory information" about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously," then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in a memo, adding that he believed Comey had given a "textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do."