It is time for us to stand united against the use of the Justice Department and U.S. Attorneys as tools for retribution. Anyone who believes in the rule of laws can be proud that career prosecutors historically have a reputation for independence and fairly applying those laws.
That reputation is being destroyed by President Trump, who orders the Attorney General and U.S. Attorneys to prosecute individuals with whom he holds a grudge, and who fires or reassigns lawyers who don’t obey him or don’t obey him quickly enough.
Examples out of many instances of prosecutor manipulation are the repeated unsuccessful efforts to bring indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York’s Attorney General Letitia James; the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for properly recusing himself; the firing of Pam Bondi for not pushing investigations quickly enough and ensuring that named adversaries like Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell are quickly “put in jail.”
Most recently, President Trump has removed the career prosecutor from the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan because it is not proceeding fast enough.
These are not political interventions since many targets are Republicans. They are in fact interventions to exact retribution and vengeful punishment against those who have “crossed” a president who keeps score
Collectively, we attorneys, as defenders of the Constitution and rule of law, must insist that Congress pass legislation making the Justice Department and its attorneys, together with U.S. attorneys, once appointed by a new administration, fully independent and replaceable only for just cause. Efforts to influence or direct U.S. prosecutors should be a criminal and impeachable offense, punishable by dismissal from government service if convicted in either case.
If we give any president his own prosecutorial force and his own army, like ICE, to go after his “enemies,” we are allowing a dictatorship and the loss of the rule of law.
It is time to act.
