WASHINGTON ― While the public face of Donald Trump’s radical reshaping of the Department of Justice into a weapon to attack his critics is changing, the policy behind it, legal experts said, almost certainly will not.
Trump has given no indication he is ready to stop harassing and prosecuting political opponents, and the former prosecutors and intelligence officials who participated in the various investigations into his actions as president. Indeed, outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi appears to have been fired because she didn’t successfully go after that enemies list aggressively enough.
“Trump has attempted to bend DOJ to his will and turn it into his personal law firm, including by putting his defense lawyers into the top jobs. Bondi smashed through norms and laws to please him but evidently that was not enough,” said Norm Eisen, a top lawyer in Barack Obama’s White House.
And the interim choice for the job, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, is publicly as committed to harming Trump’s perceived enemies as much as Trump. The names floated as possible replacements ― including EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee ― are similarly gung-ho about prosecuting the president’s bête noires.
