WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The White House has dispatched social media teams alongside FBI agents executing arrest warrants in the nation’s capital to generate videos that promote U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the District of Columbia, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The highly unusual arrangement runs afoul of longstanding Justice Department norms which seek to insulate criminal investigations from political influence.
It could hamstring prosecutors’ ability to try their cases by generating pre-trial publicity and raise constitutional questions about suspects’ rights to privacy in cases involving arrests carried out in non-public areas, legal experts say.
The White House has been playing an outsized role in the FBI’s operations since Trump announced on August 11 that he was initiating a federal takeover of the District of Columbia’s police department and calling in the National Guard to help patrol the streets. Critics have decried his actions as an authoritarian-like abuse of power.
The White House posted a highly produced promotional video on its X account on Thursday documenting the arrest of Sean Charles Dunn, a now-former Department of Justice employee who is facing an assault charge after he hurled a Subway sandwich at a federal agent. In the video, armed agents can be seen storming Dunn’s apartment and putting him in handcuffs.
