Jan.29

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

Kill the Lawyers

"The first thing we do is, let's kill all the lawyers." That's Dick the Butcher, from Act IV, Scene II of Henry VI, Part II (not to be confused with Act VI, Scene II of Henry IV, Part II).

Much like the effort to overturn the 2020 election results and stage a coup to keep Donald Trump in power, there's a multi-pronged strategy underway to politicize the DOJ and sideline, harass, threaten and intimidate career federal prosecutors, while installing political cronies in key positions normally occupied by nonpartisan officials (see above).

To be sure, each administration tends to put in place an attorney general and deputy AG who will direct resources toward the new administration's stated priorities. U.S. Attorneys are sometimes (but not always) replaced. These positions are politically appointed and reflect the president's general goals. But career prosecutors are not political appointees and work across administrations. They are accustomed to some shifting of their assignments as enforcement efforts are stepped up in some areas and decreased in others. That is legal and acceptable. What is not legal is mass reassignments and mass firings. The law prohibits reassigning staff within 120 days of a new AG. And civil service laws prohibit firing civil servants, like career prosecutors, without cause.

Against that backdrop, the Trump administration has taken several drastic and dangerous steps to hollow out and weaken the DOJ and FBI. What we're witnessing is the actual weaponization and politicization of the DOJ to make it a tool of retribution and self-interest instead of one for the public good, and we're getting a crash course in how that's accomplished. To wit:

1. Reassignment of career prosecutors and FBI agents to diminished roles to force them out. For example, National Security Division prosecutor George Toscas, the DOJ's foremost expert on terrorism prosecutions, and Bruce Schwartz, international legal relations expert, are now assigned to immigration roundups.
   
   
2. Mass firings of career prosecutors, including those previously assigned to Jack Smith's investigations, in violation of civil service protections. That means no more Sally Yates-types to refuse illegal orders or point out pesky ethical rules or guardrails against political influence.
   
   
3. Firings of inspectors general who are the watchdogs of federal agencies and whose job is to report on and rein in wrongdoing and fraud, waste and abuse. This was also done without the required notice to Congress.
   
   
4. Emil Bove (Trump's personal attorney in the federal and New York cases), the new deputy AG, issued an order threatening to prosecute local law enforcement who don't carry out federal immigration law, which is a violation of the anti-commandeering doctrine in the Constitution under Prince v. U.S. (states can't be required to carry out federal programs) and other Supreme Court precedent.
   
   
5. Raiding the FBI's joint terrorism task force to reassign veteran agents to a new anti-immigration task force (Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group) and diverting the resources of the terrorism task force to this effort, making the country more vulnerable to a terrorist attack as ISIS re-emerges and radicalizes Americans inside the country, as evidenced by the attack in New Orleans by a U.S. citizen. Andy McCabe, former FBI deputy director, in the podcast Unjustified, said: "To drain resources away from the JTTF mission whose number one priority is preventing an act of terrorism in the U.S. and pushing that into cashing a check on a campaign promise about immigration is wildly irresponsible."
   
   
6. Acting U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" movement who was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, is not only dismissing all pending Jan. 6 cases but has launched an "investigation" into all prosecutors who handled those cases, ostensibly because some charges were dropped after the Supreme Court held that one conspiracy charge was not legally supported against some rioters.
   
   
7. In addition to terrorizing immigrant communities, Trump has declared open season on abortion clinics by pardoning criminals jailed for violent attacks on providers and patients. He ordered the DOJ to stop enforcing the FACE Act and other laws that protect clinics from attacks, pledged to go after buffer laws that keep protesters a certain distance from clinics as first amendment violations, and snuck in language in the anti-trans executive order defining a "person... at conception" to create "fetal personhood" rights.
   
   
8. DOJ leadership is freezing pending cases in the civil rights division regarding negotiated consent decrees with police departments in Minneapolis, Memphis, and Louisville.

For those keeping score, Trump has released violent domestic terrorists from prison and cut staff from the unit that can go after those people, so that his administration might target construction workers, food handlers, and pregnant women. With the rest of these moves, he has pulled down the wall separating the DOJ from the White House and is now openly ordering the nation's foremost law enforcement department to do his bidding. This is precisely how the rule of law is destroyed and democracy dismantled. (L)

[Ed. Note: We get questions every week as to the identity of (L). If you are wondering, see here for an explanation.]