Feb.25

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Today's Crazypants Roundup: "Law Enforcement" in the Age of Trump

Sigh. The amount of crazypants news has piled up to the point that we are now doing themed roundups. Today's rundown is about law enforcement. Tomorrow (or maybe Friday) will be about efforts to silence all opposition. Here are the four sledgehammers, of various sizes, that the Trump administration has taken to fair and impartial administration of justice in the last week or so:

• Kash Patel: It is pretty evident that there is a limited supply of knee-bending lackeys whom Donald Trump thinks he can really trust. Remember how Jared Kushner's portfolio, during Trump v1.0, included something like four different jobs? Well, newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel has just picked up a second hat to wear; he will be the "Acting" Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
  
  The reason that we put "Acting" in quotes is that the Senate has confirmed only two ATF directors in the last two decades. B. Todd Jones was confirmed in 2013, and served until 2015, and Steve Dettelbach was confirmed in 2022 and served until 2025. That means that, among other things, Trump never managed to get an ATF Director confirmed during his first term. Regina Lombardo held the post on an "Acting" basis for about 2 years, from 2019-21, and that was it. So, expect Patel to hold on to the job for a good, long time—maybe until 2029.
  
  There is little question what Patel's task will be here—to do everything possible to take the "F" out of ATF. Second Amendment zealots were not happy about Dettelbach, who pushed for more background checks and tighter restrictions on "ghost guns." Just in case there was any question as to the new "mission" of ATF, AG Pam Bondi fired the Bureau's chief counsel, Pamela Hicks, last week. Hicks worked for the Department of Justice for more than 20 years, and was chief counsel to ATF for more than 3 years, but Bondi claims that Hicks was "targeting gun owners," and was part of a plot to "weaponize" ATF. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which has largely supplanted the NRA as D.C.'s #1 pro-gun lobby, has already put out a press release heartily congratulating Patel on his new post. Undoubtedly, he will lead the thoughts and prayers next time a bunch of children are mowed down by a school shooter.
  
  
• Dan Bongino: Kash Patel not only has a new job, he also has a new right-hand man, as Trump has appointed Dan Bongino to be the deputy FBI director. The post does not require Senate confirmation, so Bongino is already on the job.
  
  One could make the argument that Bongino is qualified to assume the deputy directorship, as he does have a law enforcement background. He served as an NYPD officer for 4 years, and then was a part of the U.S. Secret Service for a little over a decade. However, the deputy director's post is nearly always filled by an FBI careerist, and Bongino is not that, having never been a part of the FBI in any capacity.
  
  Of course, it isn't Bongino's law-enforcement résumé that Trump really cares about. It's Bongino's career as a far-right, extremely whackadoodle, Trump-cultist podcaster. At various times, the newly appointed FBI bigwig has declared that his mission is to "own the libs" because they are "pure unadulterated evil." He's also described Trump as "an apex predator" and "the lion king." One wonders if Bongino actually saw that movie since... the lion king ends up dead after being betrayed by a family member. As you might imagine, the now-former podcaster is all-in on every conspiracy theory you can think of, from the 2020 election being stolen, to the deep state, to Joe Biden being in bed with China, to the documents at Mar-a-Lago being planted by Trump's enemies.
  
  The appointment of Bongino is not exactly going to do wonders for morale at the Bureau. While the rank-and-file agents were not thrilled at the choice of Patel, the deputy director is actually more important to their day-to-day lives, as it's the deputy director who oversees daily operations. The agents also remember, very well, that Bongino has attacked their work at every turn, describing the FBI as "irredeemably corrupt." We're not so sure he was right when he made that declaration, but he might be right as of yesterday.
  
  
• Ed Martin: It's somewhat less likely that readers have heard of Martin, as he's flown under the radar a bit more than Patel and Bongino. However, he's been on an unbelievable run of corrupt behavior in the past week or so, so his name may soon be mentioned in the same breath as those of his "illustrious" colleagues.
  
  Since Trump took office, Martin has served as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and he's already been nominated to keep the job on a permanent basis. In a shocking turn of events, he has relatively limited experience practicing law, and zero experience as a prosecutor. Normally, that would be unacceptable for someone who will serve as one of the most important prosecutors in the country.
  
  How did he get the gig? Well, he's got a long career as a Roger Stone-like political operative and provocateur, having served as an assistant to Phyllis Schlafly for many years, and having run for political office many times, without any success. However, what really put Martin on Trump's radar screen was two things. First—and stop us if you've heard this before—he was a far-right radio host and podcaster who had many flattering things to say about Trump, and many conspiratorial things to say about Trump's opponents. Second, he helped to defend several 1/6 rioters (of which he was also one, though he was not charged with any crimes), and he helped to raise money for the defense of many more.
  
  So, what's the corrupt behavior we allude to? To start, he oversaw the dismissal of a whole bunch of 1/6 cases. That's not great, but it's probably not enough to cost Martin his bar card. However, one of the dismissals involved someone he himself had represented. Now THAT's enough to cost him his bar card (and there's already been a formal complaint filed).
  
  Martin has also been waving his sword (briefcase?) around, and threatening to prosecute anyone who has said mean things about Donald Trump in the past, or who plans to do so in the future. He's specifically gone after a few DOGE critics, and also Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Martin has taken to referring to his campaign against Trump/Musk-critical Democrats as "Operation Whirlwind."
  
  Most egregiously, after Martin learned that the firm of Covington & Burling was providing legal advice to former special counsel Jack Smith free of charge, Martin sent out a tweet in which he decreed: "Save your receipts, Smith and Covington. We'll be in touch soon." This is a violation of several codes of professional conduct, such as the ones that warn prosecutors that they cannot threaten people who seek counsel, nor the attorneys with whom they confer.
  
  And the list does not end there. Over the weekend, a woman—whose name we prefer not to share—called the police and said that she is having an affair with Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), and that she was assaulted by him during an argument. She even appeared at the police station to show the bruises on her arms. Later, however, she recanted her story, explaining that she was just suffering from jet lag.
  
  Since the report was made in D.C., the police there were required to investigate—the laws of the District dictate that the police move forward once there is a claim of domestic violence, even if the person making the claim thinks better of it later. The police decided there was indeed an assault, and so tried to secure a warrant for Mills' arrest. To be valid, that application for the warrant had to be signed by... Ed Martin. And somehow, some way, the paperwork has disappeared into the void.
  
  It's not too hard to reach the conclusion that Martin, who is clearly a hardcore partisan, has done the math and decided that the last thing that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) needs is to be missing another vote for days or weeks or months, depending on what might happen with the Congressman. We'll see in the next few days if this blows up in Martin's incredibly sleazy face, or if he's able to get away with it.
  
  
• What Data?: One last bit of news. In response to the murder of George Floyd, the federal government created the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD). This is a database that allows for misconduct by federal law enforcement officers to be documented, so that rotten cops cannot escape their pasts by changing agencies (say, from the FBI to the U.S. Marshals Service). As of this week, NLEAD is no more. We guess the problem of police misconduct has been solved, for all time.
  
  It is understandable that the Trump administration decided to put the kibosh on this initiative. After all, the idea came from... wait a minute... the last Trump administration. Hmmmmm. Unfortunately, problem #1 is that it was the Biden administration that actually completed implementation, and anything that bears the fingerprints of any Democrat has to go. And problem #2 is that there are plenty of people in Trump's base who think law enforcement officials should be able to do anything they want, anytime they want, no questions asked, and no records kept.

Over the weekend, Trump decreed that, with these moves, "Fairness, Justice, Law and Order will be brought back to America, and quickly." We are now a decade into his political career, and it still boggles the mind that he can say such things with a straight face. (Z)