By Chris Megerian and Lindsay Whitehurst - 03/20/25

Anthony Coley, who led public affairs at the Justice Department during President Joe Biden’s administration, said statements involving civil litigation were always coordinated between his office and the West Wing.

“The words could be used to support what we’re doing or undermine what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s a carefully choreographed effort to make sure there was no daylight between what was said in the court of public opinion and what could ultimately play out in the court of law.”

In comparison to how things were done in the past, Coley said, Trump has a “ready-fire-aim approach of doing business.”

By David Catanese - 03/14/25

During her confirmation hearing, Bondi said she would urge the president to review pardons for Jan. 6 rioters on a case-by-case basis, but said nothing when Trump issued blanket clemency for all 1,500 charged or convicted in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. “Even when they are trying to stick to norms, Donald Trump is saying, ‘No, I’m in charge. I make the decisions,’” said Anthony Coley, a former senior advisor to Merrick Garland, the Biden administration’s attorney general. “And Pam Bondi is careful enough that she wants to stay in Donald Trump’s good graces — unlike her two predecessors. They both had lines they would not cross with Trump.”

By Hanna Trudo and Amie Parnes - 03/07/25

Others would rather look beyond the establishment and consider an outsider’s perspective.

“The right frame is an insider-or-outsider frame, not left, right or indifferent,” Democratic strategist Anthony Coley said. “What the country wants now are folks that will disrupt the status quo. And they’re not concerned with the labels.”

By Amie Parnes - 03/05/25

Democrats have always bandied about names like Oprah or former first lady Michelle Obama in their moments of desperation. What’s different this time is that there’s a very real element to those discussions.

“I think we need more and varied voices charting the path forward, listening to what voters have to say,” said Democratic strategist Anthony Coley. “We have to be open enough and humble enough to listen to people who are not traditional candidates when voters are saying they want to disrupt the status quo.”

By Josh Gerstein, Betsy Woodruff, and Kyle Cheney - 12/23/24

Some former DOJ officials cautioned that the feds’ decision not to bring a criminal case does not amount to the “exoneration” Gaetz has repeatedly claimed.

“Generally speaking, the Justice Department’s decision to not charge an individual doesn’t mean that he or she didn’t commit wrongdoing,” former DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley said. “Criminal prosecution is a high bar that relies on a variety of factors — evidence, witnesses, etc. Bottom line: No charges does not equal full exoneration.”

By Peter Baker - 12/02/24

Anthony Coley, a former Justice Department official in the Biden administration, said “the pardon itself is appropriate” given the danger to Hunter Biden. Mr. Trump has announced that he will nominate Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general who has assailed Hunter Biden, to run the Justice Department, and Kash Patel, a former aide who has promised to “come after” the president-elect’s adversaries, to run the F.B.I.

“Trump is putting people in place to weaponize the Justice Department and what father wouldn’t protect his own only surviving son from unjustified political harassment?” Mr. Coley said.

Still, he added, Mr. Biden’s assertion that politics drove the prosecution of Hunter Biden by the Biden Justice Department echoes Mr. Trump’s own grievances and is not supported by facts. “I can’t imagine that with distance of time, history will view that language any more favorably than many view it today,” Mr. Coley said.