Dem
47
GOP
53
Perhaps you have noticed that the Department of Justice has been leaning particularly hard into its current habit of abusing its powers, and acting as Donald Trump's personal muscle. Part of that is, of course, the situation in Minneapolis, which has become an all-hands-on-deck moment for the White House. Another part of it, from where we sit, is that whatever is mentally wrong with Trump is getting worse. If, in a few years, it becomes abundantly clear that he was in the grips of dementia or some other neurological condition, we want to be able to refer back to posts like this one and say, "There was no way to be sure, but the evidence was certainly there."
There's also another dimension, namely that "Attorney General" Pam Bondi is fighting for her job. According to
reporting
from The Wall Street Journal, Trump is unhappy with his goon squad's Department of Justice's performance,
and he blames Bondi. He has complained to insiders that she is "weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda." He is
particularly unhappy that the prosecutions of Letitia James and James Comey are going nowhere. For Bondi, going all in
on Minneapolis allows her to show that she's the bestest AG ever, and to distract from the James/Comey situations.
The fundamental problem is that Trump either doesn't understand, or chooses to ignore, that it's not enough to find and install a corrupt AG. Even if the person leading the DoJ is willing to be his fawning lackey—and Bondi is—there are still huge barriers to full-bore corruption and score-settling. Grand juries, for example, not to mention federal judges. We suppose that if Bondi and her underlings were more competent, they might be able to sneak their witch hunts past the grand jurors, and to avoid the embarrassing "no true bill" results. But they're not going to pull the wool over the eyes of federal judges.
Yesterday provided a case in point. Lindsey Halligan, another fawning lackey, has been trying very hard to hold onto her job as not-really-US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, because that post makes her the point person on the James and Comey prosecutions. She may well think that if she has any success at all, or if she at least "proves" her loyalty, she could be the next AG. The problem is that Halligan is unqualified for the job, couldn't get approved by the Senate, and couldn't get approved by the judges of that district. She's kept "doing" the job, without legal authority, nonetheless.
Not anymore, though. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge David Novak issued a scorching opinion in which he said that Halligan's service is not legal, she's not qualified, and if she doesn't stop pretending otherwise (the Judge used the word "masquerading"), she is likely to face disciplinary proceedings. This caused Halligan to finally get the message, and she resigned from the DoJ yesterday. We guess she'll go back to practicing insurance law.
Needless to say, the loss of a fully corrupt, fully subservient lackey is not going to make it any easier for Bondi to prosecute James and Comey. And one of these days, Trump's obsession with Greenland and/or Minneapolis will wane just a little, and his obsession with James and Comey will wax again. On Polymarket, Bondi has roared into the lead in the "which Cabinet member will Trump fire first?" betting, taking 31% of the handle. The only others to be above 5% are DHS Secretary Kristi Noem (14%), DNI Tulsi Gabbard (8%) and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer (7%). It's almost like someone thinks Trump is hostile to women. (Z)