The possible major shakeup comes amid President Donald Trump’s moves to radically streamline the government.
The Justice Department is considering merging the lead agencies enforcing drug and gun laws in a major shakeup as it moves to follow President Donald Trump’s instructions to sharply streamline the government.
In addition to merging the Drug Enforcement Agency and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, department leaders are considering eliminating field offices that handle antitrust and environmental cases, according to a March 25 memo seen by Reuters.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in that memo ordered department officials to provide feedback to the proposed restructuring by April 2.
A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sweeping proposal comes after Reuters previously reported that the Justice Department was considering drastically scaling back staffing in the Public Integrity Section, which handles the department’s most politically sensitive public corruption cases.
The memo calls for reassigning some of the public corruption attorneys to work out of various U.S. Attorneys’ offices, “while maintaining a core team of supervisory attorneys” to remain in the section.
Other proposed changes in the memo include merging all the Justice Department’s grant offices into one, and eliminating the Community Relations Service, an office that works to de-escalate tensions in various local communities.
