Jonathan Gross, a former political appointee at the Justice Department, has gone public with sharp criticisms of the department’s leadership and its handling of internal reviews. Gross, who left the DOJ earlier this year, singled out acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, accusing him of sloppy management, careerism and undermining former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s efforts.
Gross rose to prominence after representing defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A rabbi-turned-lawyer with little prior criminal-defense experience, he became an outspoken critic of the government’s prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants and was later hired into the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. His profile among Trump allies helped land him a role in the administration’s newly created “Weaponization Working Group,” an internal team formed under Bondi to examine alleged politicization of federal law enforcement during the Biden administration.
The working group also included Jared Wise, a former FBI agent who participated in Jan. 6 and later joined the administration. Both Gross and Wise say they expected the group to investigate alleged abuses by prosecutors and agents involved in the Jan. 6 cases. Instead, Gross tells a very different story: the group had no budget or staff, met infrequently, and produced no public report on the department’s handling of the Jan. 6 prosecutions.
Gross has described the group’s early promise as quickly fading. According to him, the team shifted focus to other topics—such as allegations of anti-Christian bias and scrutiny of school board protests—while leaving the largest investigation of the department’s recent history effectively unexamined. Prosecutors who worked the Jan. 6 cases have denied misconduct and say the working group is a partisan effort to punish officials who prosecuted Trump supporters.
Frustration over the lack of action has been felt among many former Jan. 6 defendants, who continue to press for what they call the three R’s: reparations, revenge and revelations. Gross and other former members now say the group no longer investigates the handling of those cases.
Gross also recounts internal conflict over his advocacy for Jan. 6 defendants. He says he repeatedly raised emails asking for renewed scrutiny of certain cases but received no substantive responses and was eventually asked to stop. The situation escalated after he escorted former Jan. 6 defendants into Justice Department headquarters so they could discuss their cases with officials. Gross says his superiors objected, he was placed on paid leave, reassigned to menial tasks and ultimately left the department.
Since departing, Gross has publicly attacked Todd Blanche, accusing him on social media of sabotaging Bondi so Blanche could assume the acting attorney general role. Blanche has denied that characterization, saying he did not “audition” for the job and that his actions reflect his duties as deputy-turned-acting AG.
Gross has also criticized recent DOJ actions, predicting that a high-profile indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center will be dismissed as a sloppy case. The department has pursued other notable prosecutions under Blanche’s leadership, including an indictment of former FBI director James Comey.
Gross says he worries about possible retaliation from former colleagues but is determined to speak out. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. His criticisms arrive at a politically sensitive moment, as the administration faces pressure from some elements of its base to deliver on promises of accountability ahead of the midterm elections.