U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi during a July 8 cabinet meeting at the White House. Photo: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images On my first day as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, I received “the Reservoir Speech.” Justice Department alums are nodding in recognition; we all got some variation of the talk. In broad strokes: Think of DOJ as a reservoir and the water in it as public trust. It takes years to build up that water