by
Yuki
Iwamura-Pool/Getty
Images)
Well,
they
made
it
official:
The
Justice
Department
no
longer
serves
the
United
States,
it
serves
Donald
Trump
personally.
Buried
in
new
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi’s
memo
dump
between
the
empty
platitudes
about
“justice”
and
the
barely
concealed
threats
against
career
prosecutors
is
a
single
phrase
marking
a
tectonic
shift
in
the
DOJ’s
purpose.
Bondi
advises
the
DOJ
that
they
cannot
deprive
“the
President
of
the
benefit
of
his
lawyers”
(memo
available
here).
What
the
Nixon
is
this?
While
this
step
is
brazen,
it’s
not
necessarily
unexpected.
At
this
point,
everyone
running
the
DOJ
actually
are
Trump’s
personal
lawyers.
Emil
Bove
and
Todd
Blanche
will
serve
as
top
deputies
at
the
DOJ
after
working
as
Trump’s
personal
defense
attorneys.
Trump’s
appellate
lawyer
John
Sauer
gets
to
be
Solicitor
General
and
file
weekly
Supreme
Court
briefs
in
cases
like
Trump
v.
People
Who
Hurt
His
Feelings.
And
Bondi
herself
represented
Trump
in
his
first
impeachment
—
a
gig
she
got
after
conveniently
dropping
an
investigation
into
Trump
University
after
receiving
a
sizable
donation
from…
oh,
you
don’t
even
need
me
to
finish
that
sentence,
do
you?
At
this
point,
it
would
be
more
honest
to
slap
a
“Trump
Legal
Services”
sign
on
the
DOJ
building
and
start
running
TV
ads
promising
to
“Make
Your
Indictments
Disappear!”
Now
that
Cellino
&
Barnes
lost
its
iconic
phone
number,
maybe
the
DOJ
could
take
it.
If
there’s
any
administration
eager
to
lean
into
“88”
iconography,
it’s
the
Musk/Trump
administration.
Even
after
stacking
the
DOJ
with
personal
cronies,
calling
them
“his
lawyers”
out
loud
delivers
a
Constitutional
Law
jump
scare.
The
Department
of
Justice
generally
engages
in
a
subtle
balancing
act.
The
Attorney
General
serves
at
the
pleasure
of
the
President,
but
the
department
itself
speaks
for
the
government
as
a
whole.
This
distinction
usually
manifests
as
a
limited
or
not-so-limited
independence.
It’s
why
Merrick
Garland’s
DOJ
spent
half
its
time
trying
to
put
Hunter
Biden
in
jail
based
on
charges
that
barely
merit
probation
against
average
citizens.
Even
the
most
aggressive
executives
try
to
pay
lip
service
to
the
idea
that
Justice
enjoys
independence
from
the
personal
whims
of
the
White
House.
This
memo
shatters
that
illusion.
And
while
the
most
stunning
admission
comes
toward
the
end,
Bondi
lays
the
groundwork
for
this
shift
earlier
in
the
memo:
It
is
the
job
of
an
attorney
privileged
to
serve
in
the
Department
of
Justice
to
zealously
defend
the
interests
of
the
United
States.
Those
interests,
and
the
overall
policy
of
the
United
States,
are
set
by
the
Nation’s
Chief
Executive,
who
is
vested
by
the
Constitution
with
all
“[E]xecutive
Power.”
More
broadly,
attorneys
are
expected
to
zealously
advance,
protect,
and
defend
their
client’s
interests.
Department
of
Justice
attorneys
have
signed
up
for
a
job
that
requires
zealously
advocating
for
the
United
States.
Without
the
second
sentence,
that
paragraph
is
a
standard
high
school
civics
course
description
of
the
DOJ.
But,
as
any
successful
high
school
civics
student
knows,
“the
overall
policy
of
the
United
States”
is
not,
in
fact
“set
by
the
Nation’s
Chief
Executive.”
The
“executive
power”
means
enforcing
laws
passed
by
Congress,
not
making
up
new
ones.
Orwellian
is
a
term
that
gets
overused,
usually
to
suggest
some
a
1984-style
omnipowerful
dictatorial
regime.
This
is
more
Orwellian
as
in
a
bunch
of
pigs
clumsily
rewriting
rules
as
they
go
along.
The
responsibilities
of
Department
of
Justice
attorneys
include
not
only
aggressively
enforcing
criminal
and
civil
laws
enacted
by
Congress,
but
also
vigorously
defending
presidential
policies
and
actions
against
legal
challenges
on
behalf
of
the
United
States.
The
discretion
afforded
Department
attorneys
entrusted
with
those
responsibilities
does
not
include
latitude
to
substitute
personal
political
views
or
judgments
for
those
that
prevailed
in
the
election.
Yeah,
but
it’s
not
THE
election.
There
are
a
lot
of
elections
involved
in
enforcing
the
law.
The
2024
election
does
not
—
or
at
least
should
not
—
relieve
a
DOJ
lawyer
from
enforcing
the
Voting
Rights
Act
of
1965.
Laws
do
not
cease
to
exist
until
the
legislature
passes
a
new
one.
Bondi’s
already
adding
a
porcine
touch
to
the
concept
of
prosecutorial
discretion
that
all
laws
are
equal
but
some
are
more
equal
than
others.
Apparently
the
personal
judgments
that
are
on
the
outs
includes
stuff
like
“the
Civil
Rights
Act”
or
“laws
against
foreign
bribes.”
And,
of
course,
one
big
policy
“that
prevailed
in
the
election”
that
DOJ
staff
are
expected
to
wholeheartedly
embrace
is
a
holy
crusade
against
anyone
who
thinks
former
presidents
shouldn’t
be
able
to
sell
nuclear
secrets
to
hostile
foreign
governments.
After
years
of
characterizing
Trump’s
theft
of
classified
materials
and,
much
more
importantly,
repeated
refusal
to
turn
them
over
once
asked
about
it
as
the
“weaponization”
of
the
Justice
Department,
Bondi
has
breezily
slid
the
Department
into
weaponizing
the
Justice
Department.
Because
another
memo
pumped
out
by
Bondi
sets
the
stage
to
punish
those
who
prosecuted
Trump
cases
and
to
chill
any
future
effort
if/when
Trump
or
his
allies
commit
future
crimes.
They’ve
finally
found
the
outer
limit
of
qualified
immunity.
It’s
not
literally
setting
a
man
on
fire,
it’s
Trump’s
feelings.
Which
is
weird
because
a
couple
weeks
ago,
Bondi
couldn’t
even
begin
to
answer
a
question
about
special
counsel
investigations
and
now
she
has
very
detailed
and
official
thoughts
about
it.
If
one
didn’t
know
any
better,
it’s
almost
like
she
openly
lied
to
the
U.S.
Senate!
Would
Pam
Bondi
try
to
weaponize
the
legal
system?
She
weaponized
the
legal
system
against
hurricane
victims
over
their
pet
dog,
she’s
more
than
capable
of
turning
DOJ
action
into
political
ordnance.
The
nation’s
top
law
enforcement
agency
has
been
converted
into
a
legal
defense
team
for
a
single
individual,
run
by
people
who
literally
represented
him
in
court.
It’s
a
bit
of
an
(un)ethical
trend
with
this
department
these
days.
Nixon
sparked
a
constitutional
crisis
when
he
started
a
firing
spree
until
someone
at
DOJ
would
do
his
bidding.
Trump
avoided
Nixon’s
mistake
by
making
sure
he
didn’t
install
anyone
in
the
job
with
enough
backbone
to
refuse
him.
So
when
Bondi
talks
about
“his
lawyers,”
believe
her.
Because
this
Justice
Department
isn’t
for
America
anymore.
It’s
for
him.
(Memo
available
on
the
next
page…)
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
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of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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