New Memoranda Issued by Attorney General Bondi: Department of Justice Corporate Enforcement Topics

By James P. Melendres, Andrew P. Young, and Brenna Fisher

Pam Bondi was sworn into office as the United States Attorney General on February 5, 2025, and immediately issued a bevy of memoranda advancing the Trump Administration’s priorities. The memorandum entitled General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and Sentencing (the General Policy Memo) and the memorandum entitled Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organization (the Total Elimination Memo) outline important policy changes related to criminal corporate enforcement.

1. The General Policy Memo:  Federal Prosecutors Must “Pursue the Most Serious, Readily Provable Offenses.”

The General Policy Memo reiterates several longstanding policies on charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing, then announces the restoration of a “core principle” of the first Trump Administration: “in the absence of unusual facts, prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.” Any prosecutorial decision to deviate from this core principle must be approved by a U.S. Attorney or Assistant Attorney General (or their designee), documenting the reasons for the deviation.

The General Policy Memo further provides that plea bargaining is “governed by the same fundamental considerations” applied in charging decisions, namely pursuing the most serious, readily provable offense. The General Policy Memo also instructs prosecutors to not “abandon pending charges” in favor of a plea that is inconsistent with the “seriousness of the defendant’s conduct at the time the charges were filed.”

As to sentencing, the General Policy Memo advises that “[i]n most cases,” sentences within the applicable Sentencing Guidelines will be appropriate. On its face, it appears this change applies to all active and pending federal criminal investigations and plea bargaining negotiations, and sentencings, including those involving corporate enforcement and financial crimes.

2. The Total Elimination Memo

Stating that the country faces “historic threats” from illegal immigration, cartels, gangs, human trafficking, and drug smuggling, the Total Elimination Memo directs the DOJ to “pursue total elimination” of cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). To support this directive, Attorney General Bondi is “reconstitut[ing]” Joint Task Force Vulcan, aimed at targeting Cartels and TCOs. The Total Elimination Memo also announced that Joint Task Force Alpha will be “elevated” to focus on investigations and prosecutions related to human trafficking in Central and South America. The Department of Justice is now also mandated to “use all available” resources “to combat the flood of illegal immigration.”

To surge resources to focus on the aforementioned enforcement priorities, the National Security Division’s Corporate Enforcement Unit will be disbanded. In addition, the Total Elimination Memo states that the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Section (MLARS) will prioritize investigations, prosecutions, and asset forfeiture actions that target activities of Cartels and TCOs and that MLARS’s Task Force KleptoCapture, DOJ’s Kleptocracy Team, and Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative will all be disbanded. Relatedly, as detailed in Snell & Wilmer’s February 7, 2025 Legal Alert, the Foreign Influence Task Force will be “disbanded” and prosecution of charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) will be limited to “traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”

Further, the Criminal Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit has been instructed to prioritize investigations related to bribery that facilitated cartel and organized crime activity.  It remains to be seen how much of the FCPA Unit’s “focus” will be redirected towards cartel and TCO-related cases and whether this new “focus” will materially impact already-running FCPA investigations. It should also be noted that the Total Elimination Memo addresses DOJ’s enforcement priorities, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has jurisdiction for civil FCPA enforcement authority over U.S. issuers and the SEC has not yet made any similar announcements.

Finally, the Total Elimination Memo also includes reference to “decentralization” of prosecutorial decision-making from Main Justice to United States Attorney’s Offices (USAOs) for certain matters. In particular, to remove “bureaucratic impediments” to “aggressive” prosecutions of Cartels and TCOs, the Total Elimination Memo suspends certain approvals USAOs previously needed from Main Justice components. Although it is too early to say for sure, this announcement could signal a broader reduction in oversight and approvals from Main Justice, as well as a delegation of decision-making authority to local USAOs.

Companies should monitor additional guidance Attorney General Bondi provides regarding further implementation of the General Policy Memo and the Total Elimination Memo.