Don't surrender to the Coercion Presidency

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The U.S. Department of Justice is Doomed to Protect the Constitution, as President Donald Trump did in New York City and Washington, D.C.

President Trump’s determination to bend the American justice system to his will, combined with his broad tolerance for political corruption and his abhorrence of checks and balances on his power, slammed hard last week into the commitment to duty, honor and the rule of law shared by a group of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and Washington, D.C. The confrontation between Mr. Trump’s lieutenants at the Justice Department — led by his former personal defense lawyer, Emil Bove III — and Manhattan’s interim U.S. attorney, Danielle R. Sassoon, and her colleagues is the clearest example yet of this administration’s efforts to bake quid pro quo deal making, coercive tactics, loyalty tests and other dishonorable practices into American government and warp its long-held principle of equal justice before the law.

But some of the department’s actions have had stark consequences. Seven prosecutors quit rather than drop the Adams case, in part, because it looked like a quid pro quo. Adams and his lawyer flatly denied that. (Separately, four of his top aides and deputy mayors announced Monday they’re resigning.)

Justice Department veterans are noticing a pattern a month after President Trump took office: They say the department seems to be cutting breaks to people who seem loyal to the president.

In recent weeks, the department dropped a case against former Nebraska Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. Prosecutors in Nashville withdrew from an investigation against Republican Congressman Andy Ogles, who introduced a bill that would clear the way for Trump to serve a third term in office. And last Friday, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Adams is a Democrat, but has said he’s open to cooperating with Trump’s immigration policies, including on deportations.

Justice Department sources speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal at work say the fear is the department will on one hand move to help Trump’s friends get out of trouble and on the other use its vast powers of investigation and prosecution against people who have criticized the president.

Patterns that the Department of Justice hasn’t seen before are what they are. “And none of the patterns inspire a lot of confidence that the department is being even-handed in its approach to cases.”

Trump’s allies find signs of respite from scrutiny at the Justice Department: The case of Dr. Haim on a secret pediatric transgender program

Saltzburg said that this began on inauguration day when Trump granted a clemency to more than 1,500 people who took part in the Capitol riot. He thinks that Trump wanted to cut those people out of his life because they were acting on his behalf.

Trump himself was charged by the Justice Department in connection with that case. He was charged by the department with handling classified documents. The charges were dropped after the election. The obstruction case against his aides at the Mar a Lago resort was dropped after they allegedly helped him hide information from the FBI.

Trump has said the department’s actions were politically motivated. That, he said, gave him an appreciation for the plight of other politicians accused of wrongdoing.

Senior leaders of the Justice didn’t seem to hide they acted for political reasons in order to get Adams’ cooperation with immigration agents.

A doctor in Texas was accused of sharing health records from a children’s hospital with someone else, but federal prosecutors dismissed the charges last month. The dismissal was not given a reason by prosecutors, according to Houston Public Media.

“The United States finally agreed to drop the case against Dr. Haim, and the Court granted dismissal with prejudice, which means the federal government can never again come after him for blowing the whistle on the secret pediatric transgender program at Texas Children’s Hospital,” said his lawyer Marcella Burke. The dismissal was a repudiation of the weaponization of federal law enforcement and a first step in accountability for prosecutorial misdeeds witnessed in this case.

Source: Trump’s allies find signs of respite from scrutiny at the Justice Department

Bondi, Goldsmith, and the DOJ: Weaponization of the judiciary against the enemies of Trump – a memo to Bondi and Goldsmith

Bondi herself has said she wants to go after the weaponization of the justice system, issuing a memo on her first day at work to create a working group to do just that. To start, she seems to be focused on people who helped bring cases against Trump.

Jack Goldsmith wrote this week that the DOJ law enforcement are being weaponized against Trump’s perceived enemies.