For those concerned about the integrity of the rule of law and the increasingly brazen politicization of the Justice Department, last week was devastating. Just two weeks after Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal indictment against one of his favorite political foes, the president and his team did it again, securing highly dubious charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, as part of an obviously retaliatory move.
Both cases are brazenly and transparently corrupt, for the sake of brazen and transparent corruption. They simultaneously brought into focus the severity of the authoritarian crisis: We now live in a country where the president’s political opponents are prosecuted at his command. Or as the editorial board of The New York Times summarized, “Mr. Trump is criminalizing Americans’ ability to challenge their leaders.”
Three days after James was indicted at the president’s insistence, JD Vance appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and host Kristen Welker asked the vice president: “Is the Department of Justice acting on orders from the president to prosecute his political opponents?”
Vance, not surprisingly, denied anything untoward, while asserting that former FBI Director James Comey and the New York attorney general are “obviously” guilty. But it was the other part of his answer that stood out for me.
“You know who we haven’t prosecuted?” the vice president asked. “Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton … unlike the Biden Department of Justice, Kristen, which actually went after Donald Trump.”
So, a few things.
First, when there’s evidence of a White House weaponizing federal law enforcement, it’s not great for a national officeholder to effectively respond, “But what about the political opponents we haven’t prosecuted yet?”
Second, Vance could’ve picked better examples in defense of his own administration. It’s true that Trump’s DOJ didn’t charge Clinton, but the president practically begged federal prosecutors, in public, to bring criminal charges against the former secretary of state. Similarly, it was just four months ago when Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Biden, and a month later, the president accused Obama of being “guilty” of “treason.”
Third, while it’s true that Trump faced multiple federal criminal counts during the Biden era, it wasn’t at the behest of the then-president. On the contrary, the cases were led by an independent special counsel, whose team collected a mountain of evidence implicating Trump.
Fourth, on the same morning in which Vance denied that the administration is targeting its political enemies, the vice president also appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and told host George Stephanopoulos that Trump was right to call for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s incarceration. “I certainly think that he has violated his fundamental oath of office,” Vance said of Pritzker. “That seems pretty criminal to me.”
Finally, the vice president’s protestations notwithstanding, the crisis is likely to intensify. Not only is former White House national security adviser John Bolton, another member of Trump’s enemies’ list, expected to be indicted this week, but right around the time Vance made the rounds on the Sunday shows, the president published an item on his social media platform urging “the necessary authorities” to investigate Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.
All of which is to say, one can believe Vance’s denials about ongoing Republican efforts to weaponize the Justice Department, or one can believe their eyes and ears about ongoing events unfolding in public.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
