Undermining DOJ

By Mimi Rocah

In his first 24 hours as President, Donald Trump has taken actions large and small that dramatically compromise the justice system and the functioning of the Department of Justice.

Some, like his pardoning of 1,500 defendants who were convicted and sentenced for their roles in attacking the Capitol on January 6th, including convictions of horrible acts of violence against law enforcement, are high profile. As many have already pointed out, these pardons are a betrayal; a slap in the face to those officers and their families who suffered physical and emotional scars, ongoing trauma, or death. They also undermine the hundreds of prosecutors and FBI agents nationwide who, regardless of party or politics, worked tirelessly on these cases, as well as the bipartisan federal judges who sentenced them. In addition, these pardons allow individuals who (not without encouragement) used violence to achieve their ends back out into our communities, who will be left to deal with the consequences. Finally, they encourage others to use similar means of political protest, without fear of long-term accountability.

These actions were compounded by something even more insidious: the appointment of Ed Martin, a prominent backer of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.

Last night, Trump issued a pardon of Ross Ulbricht, convicted of operating an online dark web marketplace used by massive numbers of drug dealers in Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York in 2015. Trump called the people who worked on this case “scum” in a social media post and accused them of being responsible for the “weaponization of government” against him during his time in office. He even explicitly said that the pardon was given, “in honor of [Ulbricht’s mother] and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly.”

Together, these pardons send a clear and dangerous message: People who are loyal to Donald Trump cannot be reached by career federal prosecutors and agents; the ultimate politicalization of the justice system and Department of Justice.

This is all driven home by a more under-the-radar action—the unprecedented reassignment of top career officials in the national security and criminal divisions. At least three of these individuals, George Toscas, Eun Young Choi, and Bruce Swartz, collectively have decades of experience and knowledge in investigating and prosecuting terrorists and national security threats. They have served under Democratic and Republican Administrations admirably. That is one of the central tenets of a non-political DOJ—maintaining career officials, especially at the supervisory level, to insulate the line prosecutors (who do the actual case work on the DOJ's behalf) from the political influences above. Instead of dismissing these public servants outright, Trump bypassed federal protections by reassigning them to positions that will almost certainly force them to resign, according to the Washington Post.

Does this mean that President Biden in his final actions did not also do damage to the integrity of the justice system and pardon process? No. Reasonable people can disagree and debate the propriety of Biden’s actions in his final pardons, including commutations of sentences for individuals who used violence against law enforcement and a violent narcotics dealer like Antoine Mayes.

But Trump’s series of actions on day 1 are much more intentional than messy or misguided pardons. They seek to excuse conduct because of the actor’s loyalty to Trump, and were issued to establish standards of behavior defined by his fragile ego--certainly not to remedy injustice. They punish the prosecutors because of his perception of them as his enemies. In the end, it is all of us, our nation’s bastions of justice, and the rule of law that will suffer.

In her opening remarks, soon to be Attorney General Pam Bondi, denounced “any” violence against law enforcement, claimed her mission was to get DOJ back to its “core mission” of “prosecuting violent crime…stopping child predators and drug traffickers, and protecting our nation from terrorists and other foreign threats.” If her words mean anything, she will denounce these actions by President Trump and start protecting DOJ immediately.

I won’t hold my breath.