The Justice Department has closed about half of its open investigations into bribery by U.S. businesses overseas, but plans to initiate prosecutions to more narrowly focus on misconduct that hurts the country’s capacity to compete with foreign companies, officials said on Tuesday.

President Trump signed an executive order in February pausing all of the department’s investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, pending a review of enforcement policies by Todd Blanche, the department’s No. 2 official.

Good government groups criticized the freeze as the elimination of guardrails needed to prevent corporate abuses. The move coincided with the closing of investigations into the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and the medical device maker Stryker, among others.

But Mr. Blanche, in a statement, said the decision was made to align enforcement of the act with the administration’s broader goal of increasing U.S. leverage against foreign businesses and governments, by “shifting prosecutorial resources to cases that clearly implicate U.S. national security and competitiveness.”

Mr. Blanche, a former criminal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, accused the Biden administration under Attorney General Merrick B. Garland of opening too many cases, “burdening companies” and damaging national interests.

Critics said the new guidelines were a dangerous reversal that abandoned major investigations, including a deal the Justice Department struck in May with Boeing that spared the company from taking criminal responsibility for deadly 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. Many families of the victims vigorously opposed the agreement.