Justice Just Isn’t
Donald Trump has gone from breaking the law to breaking the legal system. In his quest for revenge against James Comey, Trump replaced the top prosecutor in Virginia’s eastern district (who refused to bring a case against Comey and other Trump enemies because of a lack of evidence) with one of his personal attorneys, a loyalist named Lindsey Halligan, previously best known for agreeing with the president that the Smithsonian museums have an “overemphasis on slavery,” and who has no prosecutorial experience. Scratch that. She has a little. She just indicted James Comey. All by herself. And thus, the crucial line between a politically motivated revenge indictments and what is supposed to be an independent Justice Department has, like so many American norms, been obliterated and replaced with lawless, all-caps directives sent over social media. “The case against Comey marks the most significant step to date in Trump’s campaign to deploy the Justice Department to avenge personal grievances and prosecute those he perceives as his enemies. The president’s demands during the weekend that Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly charge Comey and others flew in the face of long-standing norms meant to shield the Justice Department from direct political interference from the White House.” WaPo (Gift Article): Former FBI director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes.
+ “By directing his DOJ to charge Comey, Trump appears to be borrowing a tactic from the playbook of Vladimir Putin. According to Ben Rhodes , a former deputy national security adviser, Putin doesn’t try to convince the Russian people that he is honest. Instead, he works to persuade them that everyone else is corrupt. It’s a cynical ploy meant to condition people to tolerate corruption. If voters believe that all public officials are crooks, then they will overlook the crooked leader who professes to share their values.” Barbara McQuade in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Comey’s Indictment Subverts Justice and Trump’s Credibility.
+ “It’s telling that various experienced, conservative, pro-Trump prosecutors reportedly expressed doubts about the case. A team of career prosecutors on the case reportedly wrote a memo concluding that charges were unwarranted. Trump’s own U.S. attorney nominee for the Eastern District of Virginia, the veteran federal prosecutor Erik Siebert, refused to charge and resigned under pressure from Trump. The President replaced him with Lindsay Halligan, an unqualified loyalist who has never previously worked as a prosecutor; she pulled the trigger on a precipitous indictment of Comey during her fourth day on the job.” The Meaning of the Comey Indictment.
+ In keeping with the themes of 2025, the Comey indictment may not have even been yesterday’s worst effort by Trump to turn the American justice system into a personal retribution operation. He’s not just going after Comey. He’s going after Democratic groups and those that fund them. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence.
+ “President Donald Trump recently ordered his attorney general to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, and tonight, the Department of Justice delivered an indictment of Comey for lying to Congress. Comey, for his part, insists on his innocence. But the charges against Comey are not just about the president’s abuse of his power for personal retribution. They represent a test of the president’s plans for the future … The American justice system is only as good as the people who staff it. Led by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, the system can be an abundant resource for a president who wants to use the law to frighten opponents away from the political process. Troops in the streets of Washington, D.C., have deterred residents from going to bars and restaurants in 2025. Those troops could be used to dissuade residents of blue cities in red states from standing in voting lines in 2026. Selective prosecution can be used to cut the flow of money to Democratic candidates. Yes, Trump’s politicization of the Department of Justice is a backward-looking expression of hurt feelings. It’s also another step in a forward-looking plot to shred the rule of law in order to pervert the next election and protect his corruption from accountability.” David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Comey Indictment Is Not Just Payback.
