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,

The Justice Department has put new emphasis on prosecutions and investigations with a focus on states that have helped undocumented immigrants.

On her first day as attorney general, Bondi issued orders to review Trump prosecutions and create a "weaponization" of government working group.