WASHINGTON, DC – Since Donald Trump took office last month, his administration has fired and reassigned career investigators and prosecutors across the Justice Department, according to Just Security, an online forum for the rigorous analysis of security, democracy, foreign policy, and rights.
Just Security calls this a move “to rapidly politicize an institution,” which Trump claims he has a right to control totally.
According to Just Security, the purging of Justice Department officials illuminates the potential threat that the Trump administration will use the DOJ to maintain power in future election cycles, an attempt to redeem their failed attempts in 2020.
The 2020 investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election outline the independence of the department, writes Just Security, adding, “Much of its work is guided by internal norms, not laws passed by Congress,” noting these norms were put in place to ensure the department’s decisions to investigate are based only on facts and law.
A central norm to the DOJ’s independence is its policy restricting communications between Department officials and the White House regarding criminal prosecutions, investigations, and civil enforcement actions, said Just Security, and this norm was disregarded by high-ranking White House officials including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who asked DOJ leaders to “open criminal investigations of false election fraud claims.”
Norms also play an important role in ensuring the Justice Department doesn’t unnecessarily interfere during elections, insisted Just Security, citing the Public Integrity Section’s Election Crimes Branch which states that “the Department’s role in election crime cases is limited,” and that it is not the Department’s role to determine the results of an election.
At the encouragement of then-Attorney General William Barr, DOJ officials deviated from this long standing norm in 2020, reports Just Security, noting just days after the 2020 election, Barr issued a memo that “loosened the Department’s long standing restrictions on taking overt investigative steps in election fraud matters until the election is certified.”
The memo was withdrawn early in 2021, but its issuing in the first place and subsequent investigations beyond what was historically permitted by the DOJ raised concerns about how precarious long-standing norms can be, depending on who is leading the department, said Just Security.
Trump’s 2020 attempt and failure to use the DOJ to hold onto power is said to be attributed to the large number of individuals that took a stand against his actions, writes Just Security, adding Trump is now ousting these individuals responsible for upholding department norms of independence.
This is not unprecedented, several past presidents have done the same, some on much larger scales. Clinton and Reno fired all 93 U.S Attorneys when he took office just as Reagan and Bush also did.
Elections have consequences…
And consequences have future elections… I find it weird that you like to repeat a line from Obama that blew up in his face. Is the irony intentional on your part?
Yeah, democrats often find their statements or actions blowing up in their face.
Reminds me of Reid’s Rule.
That said you are comparing apples to oranges here. New presidents almost always clean out US Attorneys from the previous administration. What is unusual here is that they are firing so-called “career” people – who are hired as part of the civil service, not appointed by the administration.
Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney under President Obama, noted that none of the officials were political appointees, calling the targeting of career law enforcement “what a banana republic dictator does.”
“What we’re talking about now is career employees, and they can only be removed — whether they’re FBI agents or prosecutors — for failures in performance and conduct that are documented over a period of time with a very rigid set of protections. None of that was followed.”
You can also read up on the history of the civil service system namely the Pendleton Act: “The U.S. government implemented civil service reform with the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883. This act marked a significant shift from the patronage system, also known as the “spoils system,” to a merit-based civil service system. Under the patronage system, government jobs were awarded based on political connections and loyalty rather than qualifications or competence.”
No prior President has ever fired massive numbers of career federal presecutors and FBI agents within the Justice Department in Washington, DC. This is separate from firing US Attorneys. If you care to know there is a big difference. This is an illegal and historically authoritarian action taken by a lawless President. Trump believes federal laws and the Constitution are meant for him and his sychophants to violate with impunity and malice of forethought. Presidents can’t override existing laws through executive orders. This is MAGA cancel culture at its very worst.