DOJ restricts contact with White House, a sharp pivot from Trump administration

"That trust must be earned every day, and we can do so only through our adherence to the long-standing departmental norms of independence from inappropriate influences, the principled exercise of discretion and the treatment of like cases alike."It's complicated:Moving on from Trump at DOJ is a minefield for 'straight-shooting' Merrick GarlandGarland referred to necessary "safeguards" that have regulated communications between Justice and the White House as "designed to protect our criminal and civil law enforcement decisions, and our legal judgments from partisan or other inappropriate influences, whether real or perceived, direct or indirect."The attorney general said that Justice would not alert the White House to "pending or contemplated criminal or law enforcement investigations or cases unless doing so is important for the performance of the president's duties and appropriate from a law enforcement perspective.More:Trump DOJ secretly collected CNN reporter's phone, email recordsClosely tracking the language of a 2009 memo issued by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, the Garland directive said that when appropriate, communications involving criminal or civil law enforcement investigations would be restricted to the top three officials at Justice at most, along with the president, vice president, White House counsel and deputy counsel.On occasions when additional contacts were necessary on specific criminal or civil matters, the officials involved in the initial communications could designate subordinates to continue those discussions on the condition that superiors would be advised of the contacts.The guidelines also included provisions covering grant-making decisions, civil service personnel matters and communications involving Justice's pardon attorney.The Justice memo comes as the White House issued guidelines of its own Wednesday detailing  "prohibited contacts" with other parts of the government, including the Justice Department."Specific procedures apply to communications with the Department of Justice ...