Effectively, they made it official: The Justice Division not serves the US, it serves Donald Trump personally.
Buried in new Lawyer Common Pam Bondi’s memo dump between the empty platitudes about “justice” and the hardly hid threats in opposition to profession prosecutors is a single phrase marking a tectonic shift within the DOJ’s goal. Bondi advises the DOJ that they can’t deprive “the President of the good thing about his attorneys” (memo obtainable right here).
What the Nixon is that this?
Whereas this step is brazen, it’s not essentially sudden. At this level, everybody working the DOJ really are Trump’s private attorneys. Emil Bove and Todd Blanche will function prime deputies on the DOJ after working as Trump’s private protection attorneys. Trump’s appellate lawyer John Sauer will get to be Solicitor Common and file weekly Supreme Courtroom briefs in instances like Trump v. Folks Who Harm His Emotions. And Bondi herself represented Trump in his first impeachment — a gig she received after conveniently dropping an investigation into Trump College after receiving a large donation from… oh, you don’t even want me to complete that sentence, do you?
At this level, it will be extra sincere to slap a “Trump Authorized Companies” signal on the DOJ constructing and begin working TV advertisements promising to “Make Your Indictments Disappear!” Now that Cellino & Barnes misplaced its iconic cellphone quantity, perhaps the DOJ might take it. If there’s any administration desirous to lean into “88” iconography, it’s the Musk/Trump administration.
Even after stacking the DOJ with private cronies, calling them “his attorneys” out loud delivers a Constitutional Legislation bounce scare. The Division of Justice usually engages in a delicate balancing act. The Lawyer Common serves on the pleasure of the President, however the division itself speaks for the federal government as a complete. This distinction often manifests as a restricted or not-so-limited independence. It’s why Merrick Garland’s DOJ spent half its time making an attempt to place Hunter Biden in jail primarily based on expenses that hardly advantage probation in opposition to common residents. Even essentially the most aggressive executives attempt to pay lip service to the concept Justice enjoys independence from the private whims of the White Home.
This memo shatters that phantasm. And whereas essentially the most gorgeous admission comes towards the tip, Bondi lays the groundwork for this shift earlier within the memo:
It’s the job of an lawyer privileged to serve within the Division of Justice to zealously defend the pursuits of the US. These pursuits, and the general coverage of the US, are set by the Nation’s Chief Govt, who’s vested by the Structure with all “[E]xecutive Energy.” Extra broadly, attorneys are anticipated to zealously advance, defend, and defend their shopper’s pursuits. Division of Justice attorneys have signed up for a job that requires zealously advocating for the US.
With out the second sentence, that paragraph is a regular highschool civics course description of the DOJ. However, as any profitable highschool civics scholar is aware of, “the general coverage of the US” shouldn’t be, the truth is “set by the Nation’s Chief Govt.” The “government energy” means implementing legal guidelines handed by Congress, not making up new ones. Orwellian is a time period that will get overused, often to counsel some a 1984-style omnipowerful dictatorial regime. That is extra Orwellian as in a bunch of pigs clumsily rewriting guidelines as they go alongside.
The obligations of Division of Justice attorneys embody not solely aggressively implementing prison and civil legal guidelines enacted by Congress, but additionally vigorously defending presidential insurance policies and actions in opposition to authorized challenges on behalf of the US. The discretion afforded Division attorneys entrusted with these obligations doesn’t embody latitude to substitute private political opinions or judgments for those who prevailed within the election.
Yeah, however it’s not THE election. There are plenty of elections concerned in implementing the legislation. The 2024 election doesn’t — or at the very least mustn’t — relieve a DOJ lawyer from implementing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Legal guidelines don’t stop to exist till the legislature passes a brand new one. Bondi’s already including a porcine contact to the idea of prosecutorial discretion that each one legal guidelines are equal however some are extra equal than others.
Apparently the private judgments which can be on the outs consists of stuff like “the Civil Rights Act” or “legal guidelines in opposition to overseas bribes.”
And, in fact, one massive coverage “that prevailed within the election” that DOJ workers are anticipated to wholeheartedly embrace is a holy campaign in opposition to anybody who thinks former presidents shouldn’t be capable to promote nuclear secrets and techniques to hostile overseas governments. After years of characterizing Trump’s theft of categorized supplies and, rather more importantly, repeated refusal to show them over as soon as requested about it because the “weaponization” of the Justice Division, Bondi has breezily slid the Division into weaponizing the Justice Division. As a result of one other memo pumped out by Bondi units the stage to punish those that prosecuted Trump instances and to sit back any future effort if/when Trump or his allies commit future crimes.
They’ve lastly discovered the outer restrict of certified immunity. It’s not actually setting a person on hearth, it’s Trump’s emotions.
Which is bizarre as a result of a pair weeks in the past, Bondi couldn’t even start to reply a query about particular counsel investigations and now she has very detailed and official ideas about it. If one didn’t know any higher, it’s virtually like she overtly lied to the U.S. Senate!
Would Pam Bondi attempt to weaponize the authorized system? She weaponized the authorized system in opposition to hurricane victims over their pet canine, she’s greater than able to turning DOJ motion into political ordnance.
The nation’s prime legislation enforcement company has been transformed right into a authorized protection staff for a single particular person, run by individuals who actually represented him in courtroom. It’s a little bit of an (un)moral pattern with this division nowadays. Nixon sparked a constitutional disaster when he began a firing spree till somebody at DOJ would do his bidding. Trump averted Nixon’s mistake by ensuring he didn’t set up anybody within the job with sufficient spine to refuse him.
So when Bondi talks about “his attorneys,” consider her. As a result of this Justice Division isn’t for America anymore. It’s for him.
(Memo obtainable on the following web page…)
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Considering Like A Lawyer. Be happy to e mail any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky in case you’re excited by legislation, politics, and a wholesome dose of school sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Govt Search.