Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday announced a significant update to the Department of Justice’s policies regarding bans on political involvement amid allegations of bias at the agency.
“Although longstanding Department policy has permitted non-career appointees to attend partisan political events, e.g., fundraisers and campaign events, in their personal capacities if they participated passively and obtained prior approval, under the new policy, non-career appointees may not participate in any partisan political event in any capacity,” Garland said in a memo (pdf).
The attorney general did not make any references to any specific Department of Justice (DOJ) employees or incidents….