Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

1. White House Office · Notable

Reexamine the memo limiting White House–DOJ contacts

Not started

28 1. White House Office

“The next Administration should reexamine this policy and determine whether it might be more efficient or more appropriate for communication to occur through additional channels.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    The contacts policy stands unrevised. Justice Manual §1-8.600 still incorporates the July 21, 2021 Attorney General memorandum on Department communications with the White House and is stamped "[updated April 2022]", and the Attorney General's own published-memoranda list carries no replacement. Attorney General Bondi's February 2025 memoranda were read and none addresses the contacts policy. No reexamination, and no additional channels, appear on any allowlisted source. Dated to the start of the evidence window.

    No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Researched 2026-08-27, with Chapter 1’s other White House asks.

The instrument here is a named document: the Attorney General’s memorandum governing communications between the Justice Department and the White House.

  • justice.gov/jm/jm-1-8000-congressional-relations — Justice Manual §1-8.600, “Communication with the White House”, still directs readers to “the July 21, 2021, Attorney General memorandum” and is stamped “[updated April 2022]”. The restrictive framework the Mandate objects to — initial contacts confined to the Attorney General, Deputy or Associate Attorney General and the White House Counsel’s office — is unchanged. Fetched 2026-08-27. Not written as Evidence because its date is outside the evidence window; it is the finding that nothing happened, not a dated action.
  • justice.gov/ag/select-publications — the Attorney General’s own list of published memoranda carries nothing on White House communications or contacts. Fetched 2026-08-27.
  • Attorney General Bondi’s 2025-02-05 slate of memoranda was read: “Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice” and “General Policy Regarding Zealous Advocacy on Behalf of the United States” both bear on the Department’s relationship with the President, and neither touches the contacts policy.
Action
other
Object
White House Counsel–Department of Justice contacts policy
ID
6