The Department of Justice is making it easier for Attorney General Todd Blanche and other Senate-confirmed DOJ appointees to participate in political activities, according to a new internal memo obtained by PBS News.

The memo, penned by the agency's top ethics official, includes new language noting that Senate-approved presidential appointees are exempt from strict restrictions that govern the political conduct of most senior officials. It specifically allows those employees, including the attorney general, to address political gatherings and endorse or oppose candidates – a swerve away from long-standing precedent within the DOJ that experts say may further erode trust in the U.S. justice system.

The document is the latest version of a memo the department's ethics office circulates from time to time, reminding employees of the restrictions on their political activities under a law known as the Hatch Act.

The existence of exceptions for presidential Senate-confirmed appointees themselves is not new, and is codified in the language of the Hatch Act, which governs the political activity of all federal employees. But presidential appointees at the Department of Justice have a history of holding themselves to a more restrictive code of conduct, noted Joseph Tirrell, who led the DOJ's Departmental Ethics Office before his dismissal last year.

"This policy, and its recent update, have lowered the bar so that DOJ employees are now only held to the standard set by [the Hatch Act], as opposed to the higher and more restrictive standard set by attorneys general for the last 20-plus years that help ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that DOJ was above politicking," Tirrell wrote in an email to PBS News. "DOJ's lowering of its standards regarding political activism by senior officials means that Americans can no longer trust that Department decisions and actions are made fairly and without regard to political affiliation."

The updated guidance comes as Blanche has made a number of appearances at political rallies and official events where political candidates spoke. Recent events have included an election rally for a Senate candidate in North Carolina, where Blanche introduced President Donald Trump, the Republican Party's midterm election convention, as well as a roundtable on violent crime in South Carolina, where Blanche sat next to Sen. Darline Graham, who is on the ballot in November.

Tirrell said he believes these appearances still violate a separate Hatch Act prohibition on the use of official authority to influence the outcome of elections.

Previous iterations of the same DOJ document said some individuals serving in "further restricted" positions, like those in the Senior Executive Service (SES), were barred from an even wider array of election activities – including addressing a political rally or endorsing a political candidate – than most other career executive branch employees.

The latest revision lists most of the same "further restricted" roles, but adds a new line specifically exempting "employees appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate (PAS)." And in a section listing the prohibited activities for "further restricted employees," the memo explicitly states that it does not apply to "PAS." That acronym for presidential appointees is common in other contexts, but recent previous versions of the same DOJ ethics guidance make no such distinctions between those appointees and other "further restricted" employees.

In a statement to PBS, a Department of Justice spokesperson said that the updated version of the memo clarifies, rather than changes, Hatch Act rules.

"The updated guidance clarifies an existing exception under the Hatch Act for Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed officials, and clarifies that appearances with partisan candidates should be reviewed by ethics officials to ensure proper designations," the spokesperson said.

The new language clarifying rules for employees' official appearances with partisan candidates no longer recommends employees avoid appearing alongside political candidates at official events taking place shortly before a political election.

The previous guidance, released when Blanche's predecessor Pam Bondi was serving in the top role, said: The new October memo says such appearances "warrant heightened scrutiny — especially when close to an election" and that the Office of Special Counsel has identified several factors to consider when determining whether an event is "official vs. political for purposes of the Hatch Act." The advice on compliance is a subtle shift from the March memo, which advised employees to reach out to ethics officials with any doubts or questions about "whether a particular event could be construed as partisan."

Restrictions in the Hatch Act memo have been loosened several times since the start of the second Trump administration. When Bondi took over at the Justice Department, she rescinded even stricter guidance set by her Biden-era predecessor, Merrick Garland, who said all political appointees were subject to the "further restricted" rules, regardless of whether they had previously been exempted.

Guidance for "less restricted" employees is still focused on off-duty activities. In an interview last month, Tirrell told PBS News that attorneys general should be held to a higher standard.

"Even with a disclaimer that you're speaking in your so-called personal capacity, the office of the attorney general is just too well-known and too important to create even the appearance of impartiality or impropriety, and attorneys generals should not be speaking on behalf of any candidate in any partisan election."