TMP Morning Memo – “The Justice Manual is the DOJ’s internal handbook of rules on prosecutorial conduct. According to a damning Bloomberg Law piece, Bill Essayli, Trump’s interim US Attorney in Los Angeles, said “fuck the Justice Manual” in response to questions from line attorneys about his pursuit of indictments against anti-ICE protesters. (Morning Memo has previously discussed reports of LA-based grand juries not returning indictments against protesters and prosecutors being forced to drop felony charges because of false evidence presented by arresting officers.) Bloomberg sourced the quote to four current and former prosecutors in the office.

Bloomberg Law [no paywall] – “In the three-plus months Bill Essayli has run the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office, he has ignored and overruled the recommendations of senior prosecutors, instructed staff to disregard Justice Department policies, and forced lawyers to redo indictment failures before new grand juries, said multiple lawyers with knowledge of the matters. Essayli’s pattern of yelling at career attorneys to pursue MAGA-aligned cases despite their warnings of insufficient evidence has contributed to an exodus from the LA-based district, according to the attorneys, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. Employees say Essayli has informed them that the office is down more than 80 attorneys this year—approximately one-third of the legal staff serving 20 million residents. Dozens have left since Essayli took the helm as the district’s chief law enforcement official, according to interviews, court filings, and LinkedIn profiles. “People who said that they would work their entire careers at the Department of Justice are leaving because they are facing moral challenges,” said Carley Palmer, a former deputy chief who left the office last year. Bloomberg Law spoke with more than 30 current and former employees in the office and other lawyers who interact with the team. Essayli, 39, who was previously a federal prosecutor and a twice-elected Republican state assemblyman, overhauled his office’s mission since becoming temporary US attorney in April. He’s talked to staff about using the position to criminally charge politicians, judges, or other officials who block the Trump agenda, according to four people who were either part of those conversations or briefed on them. In a July 22 radio interview with Glenn Beck, Essayli said he’s “up against very hostile judges” and inherited an office “with left-leaning attorneys” that he’s trying to get “reoriented and reprioritized.” Some of his decisions reflect priorities across Trump’s DOJ, like moving away from corporate crime investigations to emphasize immigration enforcement. But other actions stand out to subordinates as advancing Essayli’s own political interests from a legislative tenure in which he once declared that if an opportunity arises “to embarrass the Democrats, I’m going to do it.”