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President Donald Trump has issued an executive order directing the attorney general to help defend police officers from misconduct lawsuits, including arranging private-sector pro bono aid for them.

"When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer," said the order, which was signed Monday.

According to the order, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi must find a way to provide "legal resources and indemnification to law enforcement officers who unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law."

The order did not include specific details about methods or funding, but it appeared to reference deals the administration recently reached with several major law firms that, under threat of penalties, agreed to provide hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of pro bono work for causes embraced by the president — including assisting law enforcement officers.

The legal aid was among numerous items that the order contends would "unleash" aggressive policing and push back against reforms that police accountability experts have long supported.

The order also calls for additional legal protections for law enforcement officers, directs the U.S. Department of Defense to provide more unspecified "excess military and national security assets" to state and local law enforcement and prioritizes the prosecution of state and local officials who "willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law" or "unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' initiatives that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens."

"I would describe it as a bingo card of bad policing policies," said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, a nonprofit that fights law enforcement abuse of power.

Bond questioned the premise of the order's section on legal defense for police officers, who, she said, do not typically incur any personal expenses or liabilities and would not need pro bono representation.

Most police officers are protected by qualified immunity and receive full legal defense and indemnification from state and local governments and their insurers in all but the most egregious misconduct cases, she said.

"I think the whole legal defense section is just not rooted in reality in terms of the legal risk that law enforcement officers have," Bond said.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the Fraternal Order of Police and the New York City Police Benevolent Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

--Editing by Alanna Weissman.