The Justice Department and outside employment

One rule, three agencies

The Justice Department's supplemental ethics regulation covers every component on the same terms — the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Prisons, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, ATF and the rest.

As with Homeland Security, it sits in the continuously updated federal code rather than in a departmental manual, so there is no revision date to chase. This part has not changed since 2017.

And as with CBP, none of this is about the off-duty detail work the rest of this section describes. There is no permit, no hour ceiling, no employer paying for a uniformed agent. The question the regulation answers is whether an agent may hold a second job at all, and of what kind.

Three things you cannot do, at all

The prohibitions are absolute rather than conditional, and they are narrower in scope but harder in effect than most policies here.

The practice of law is prohibited — unless it is uncompensated and in the nature of community service, or on behalf of the employee themselves, their parents, spouse or children. Any criminal or habeas corpus matter is prohibited. Federal, state or local, no exceptions written into the rule itself.

And any litigation, investigation, grant or other matter in which the Justice Department is or represents a party, witness, litigant, investigator or grant-maker is prohibited. Given the Department's reach, that closes a great deal.

A waiver is possible, but only on stated grounds: undue personal or family hardship, a professional obligation entered into before government service, or where the restriction would stop the Department securing uniquely specialised services. It must be in writing, and it rests on a finding that the work is not expected to involve conduct prohibited by statute or regulation.

Approval only on a finding — the opposite of Homeland Security

This is the sharpest contrast between the two federal departments in this section, and it is worth reading side by side.

Homeland Security's rule says approval shall be granted unless it is determined the work will involve prohibited conduct. The Justice Department's says approval shall be granted only upon a determination that the work is not expected to involve prohibited conduct.

One presumes yes and requires a reason to refuse. The other presumes nothing and requires a positive finding to permit. Same subject, same department of government, opposite defaults.

Prior written approval is required in two situations: where the outside work is the practice of law, and where it involves a subject matter, policy or programme in the employee's own component's area of responsibility. So the closer the second job sits to the day job, the more certainly it needs signing off.

Detailed elsewhere? The rules follow you

Another clean inversion. Under Homeland Security's regulation, an employee detailed to another agency for more than thirty days becomes subject to that agency's supplemental rules.

The Justice Department goes the other way. An FBI or DEA special agent detailed or assigned to another entity, and subject to that entity's ethical standards, also remains subject to the Department's own regulations.

Not instead of — as well as. An agent on a task force carries both rulebooks, and the stricter provision in either one governs.

For anyone weighing a second job while on assignment, that is the practical difference: the Homeland Security employee asks which rules apply, and the FBI agent has to satisfy both.

What counts, and what does not

The definition is as broad as CBP's: any form of employment, business relationship or activity involving the provision of personal services, whether or not for compensation. It names lawyer, officer, director, trustee, employee, agent, consultant, contractor and general partner.

Three things are excluded, so long as they are not bundled with services that do count — and the third is distinctive to this department. Speaking, writing, and serving as a fact witness fall outside the definition.

That last one matters in a workforce that spends its career in and out of courtrooms. Paid speaking and writing still have their own rules in the executive branch ethics regulations.

Separately, employees may not buy forfeited property from the Department or its agents without prior approval, and may not use such property bought by a spouse or minor child. FBI, Marshals and DEA employees additionally may not buy property formerly used by their own component from that component or the federal property agency — nor use it if a spouse or minor child bought it.

Vehicles

The Justice Department ethics regulation governs whether the second job may be held at all, not what may be driven to it. The rule is not in any department's own policy. A federal passenger vehicle may be paid for out of appropriated funds only to the extent it is used for official purposes, and the statute goes on to say that carrying anyone between their home and their place of employment is not an official purpose — with a carve-out that matters to police work, because transportation essential to the safe and efficient performance of criminal law enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence or protective duties does count, when approved in writing by the head of the agency. That is about the commute and the job, not about a second employer. The penalty is what makes it unusual: an employee who wilfully uses a government passenger vehicle for anything other than an official purpose shall be suspended without pay for at least one month, and the head of the agency has no discretion to go lower — a two-week suspension for unauthorised use of a patrol vehicle has been set aside on appeal for falling under the statutory floor.

Every agency here, side by side on vehicles →

Common questions

Can an FBI employee take outside legal work?

The practice of law is prohibited, with narrow exceptions, and criminal or habeas matters are barred entirely — no exception at all.

Does outside work touching the employee's own component need approval?

Yes, prior written approval, where the activity relates to the work of the component the employee serves in.

Where do these rules come from?

Federal regulation rather than a departmental manual, so they apply across the component agencies together.