The Justice Department rewrites its ethics rules so the attorney general can campaign for candidates

What happened

In the week of October 5, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Jolene Ann Laurie, the Justice Department’s top ethics official, sent a new memo on political activity. PBS News obtained it and reported it on October 9. It adds a line exempting Senate-confirmed presidential appointees from the “further restricted” rules that bar some DOJ employees from addressing rallies or endorsing candidates. CBS News reported that it lets the attorney general, the FBI director, U.S. attorneys and others speak at rallies, canvass for votes and serve as party delegates or officers, as long as they do it in a personal capacity.

The memo drops the department’s March 2026 guidance that appointees avoid public appearances in a state shortly before its election. It now says such appearances “warrant heightened scrutiny — especially when close to an election.” In 2024 the department’s rule was that non-career appointees “may not attend any partisan political events, even in their personal capacities.” Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded that rule in 2025.

Who benefited

Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had already spoken at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on September 9 and, on September 16, at a North Carolina rally for Senate candidate Michael Whatley, where he introduced Trump. The new rules allow the kind of appearances he had already made. Republican candidates can now campaign alongside the country’s top law-enforcement officials.

Who wanted something

The department says nothing has changed. A Justice Department spokesperson told PBS the update “clarifies an existing exception under the Hatch Act” and that appearances with candidates should be reviewed by ethics officials. Of his own appearances, Blanche has said: “I am not in any way violating any rule or law.”

Who lost out

Voters who expect the people who prosecute election cases to stay out of the election. Joseph Tirrell, the department’s ethics chief until he was dismissed in 2025, told PBS that “Americans can no longer trust that Department decisions and actions are made fairly and without regard to political affiliation.” He said Blanche’s appearances still breach the Hatch Act’s ban on using official authority to influence an election.

Why it matters

The officials now free to campaign are the same ones who decide which election cases to bring. The memo landed less than four weeks before the November 3 midterms, while the department was suing states over their voter rolls and ballots.

Sources PBS NewsCBS News