Justice Just Isn’t

“That is not the way things have worked. The cardinal rule of prosecutors is to speak only through evidence and court filings. The department is supposed to abide by the dictum of charging crimes, not people. Naming and shaming is antithetical to its mission of pursuing justice impartially.” NYT (Gift Article) on a corrupted Justice Dept plan to ruin people without the need for evidence. If Justice Dept. Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says. Who is this official? Ed Martin. He was one of the very few Trump nominees to be too terrible to confirm (in part because of ties to a neo-Nazi and his enthusiastic support of Jan 6 insurrectionists). So he was given another job. “Mr. Martin has virtually no investigative experience. Instead he has signaled he intends to subject the president’s accusers to humiliations and inconveniences comparable to what Mr. Trump endured, to right perceived wrongs.”

+ Before Martin failed to be confirmed, he launched an inquiry into one of Trump’s perceived enemies. That inquiry continues. “A new criminal investigation into Andrew Cuomo will fuel concerns that President Donald Trump is living up to his promise to use the Justice Department to target his political enemies.” Cuomo is running for mayor against Eric Adams. The Justice Department infamously dropped a strong case against Adams. Will targeting opponents and liberating crooks be an election strategy moving forward?

+ This is not just a story about who’s running things in the Justice Department (and other institutions). It’s also about who these people are replacing. Ed Martin now has the role once held by Liz Oyer. “In March, Oyer was asked to make a recommendation to Attorney General Pam Bondi to reinstate actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights, which were rescinded after a domestic violence conviction in 2011. Oyer reviewed the case and refused. Within hours, she says she was terminated.”