Although the department historically has insisted on remaining independent of the White House, Bondi made clear that she was working to overhaul a DOJ that Trump has insisted is both biased against him and against political conservatives in general.

Historically, the Justice Department has been understood by both Democrat and Republican administrations as serving the people—not the president. As Ted Olson, Ronald Reagan’s chief legal counsel, wrote in a memo to the attorney general in 1982,