By
Elie Honig,
a former federal and state prosecutor and a contributor to CAFE
There was never any chance Donald Trump would self-correct his gleeful political abuse of the Justice Department. And despite initial hopes that Todd Blanche — once a thoroughly decent and respected prosecutor in the Southern District of New York — might restore some ballast, the acting attorney general has only made it worse as he panders to the boss in an effort to win the permanent job.
But sometimes our system is capable of imposing meaningful, if imperfect, restraints. And in the wake of a series of jaw-dropping acts of corruption by the Justice Department, we’ve seen resistance from two key governmental institutions: the courts and, more unexpectedly, congressional Republicans.
