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.