Trump’s allies find signs of respite against control at the Ministry of Justice: NPR

The veterans of the Ministry of Justice notice a model a month after President Trump took office: they say that the ministry seems to reduce breaks to people who seem faithful to the president.

In recent weeks, the department has abandoned a case against the former member of the Nebraska Republican Congress, Jeff Fletenberry. Nashville prosecutors withdrew from an investigation against the member of the Republican Congress Andy Ogles, who presented a bill that would open the way to Trump to serve a third term. Last Friday, the Ministry of Justice moved to reject the case against the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. Adams is a democrat, but said that he was open to cooperating with Trump’s immigration policies, including deportations.

Stephen Saltzburg, a veteran of the Ministry of Justice of the Reagan and Bush 41 eras, says that the word “alarm” is an understatement on what is happening in the department: prosecutors seem to withdraw from the people related to President Trump.

“These are models that we have not really seen in the past actions of the Ministry of Justice,” he said. “And none of the models inspires a lot of confidence that the ministry is impartial in its approach to cases.”

Saltzburg says it started on the day of the inauguration with Trump’s leniency for more than 1,500 people who participated in the riot of the Capitol. He says he seems that Trump wanted to cut a break from these people because they acted in his name.

Politicization at the Ministry of Justice?

Trump himself was charged by the Ministry of Justice as part of this case. It was also charged by the ministry in another case, linked to the management of classified documents. Prosecutors abandoned the two accusations after Trump won the November elections. Since then, prosecutors have abandoned their obstruction file against two of his assistants to the Mar a Lago Resort who would have helped him hide the classified documents in the FBI.

Trump said he considered the actions of the department as a political motivation. This, he said, gave him an appreciation of the fate of other politicians accused of reprehensible acts.

But some of the actions of the ministry had consequences struck. The benefits of the Adams case continue: seven prosecutors leave rather than moving to abandon the case; They said it looked like an illegal quid pro quo. Adams and his lawyer categorically denied this. (Society separately, four of its best assistant aids and mayors announced on Monday that they resigned.))

Peter Zeidenberg, who used to continue public corruption affairs, says that senior justice leaders did not seem to hide that they were acting for political reasons to ensure the cooperation of Adams with immigration agents .

“The politicization of the Ministry of Justice seems to be over,” he said.

Last month, Texas Federal Prosecutors rejected the accusations against a doctor accused of illegally sharing health records from a children’s hospital. Prosecutors did not give a reason for the dismissal, according to Houston’s public media.

“The United States has finally agreed to abandon the case against Dr. Haim, and the court granted dismissal with prejudice, which means that the federal government can never come after him for whistling the secret transgender program pediatrics in Texas Children’s Hospital “. said his lawyer Marcella Burke. “This dismissal represents a repudiation of the armament of the federal police forces and the first stage of the responsibility of the misdeeds of prosecutors observed in this case.”

The sources of the Ministry of Justice are expressed under the guise of anonymity for fear of reprisals at work say that fear is that the ministry will be on the one hand to help Trump’s friends to manage and to the other use his Large powers of investigation and prosecution against people who criticized the president.

But Chad Mizelle, chief of staff of the Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that this Ministry of Justice wanted to focus on its central function of pursuing dangerous criminals, not pursuing “hunts with witches with political motivation” .

Bondi herself said that she wanted to continue the armament of the judicial system, issuing a service note on the first day of work to create a working group to do exactly that. To start, she seems to focus on people who have helped to bring cases against Trump.

Harvard’s law professor Jack Goldsmith wrote this week, all of this seems to be “double”, part of a gaming book to “arm Doj’s police like never before” against enemies perceived of Trump.