One of President Donald Trump’s most flagrant acts was his discharge from the Ministry of Justice, transforming an agency designed to protect individual Americans “without prejudice or inappropriate influence” in the political arm of his administration.
Indeed, Trump and his people named armament the department against their political enemies on behalf of the end of the alleged “weapon” of the Biden administration against him.
Nothing illustrates it more dramatically than his choice as a commentator of Fox News and the electoral denial Jeanine Pirro to replace the conservative activist Edward Martin as an American interim lawyer in Washington.
In addition to Martin’s new assignment to manage a working group from the Ministry of Justice on “Armament”, the selection of Pirro illustrates how Trump uses the department to continue his wishes for the campaign of remuneration and revenge against his political enemies.
While it was once the district prosecutor elected in the county of Westchester of New York, Pirro has long been transformed into a role of political commentator and lawyer, one of the defenders of Fox News most vehement of Trump.
Started with leap
He began to arm the Ministry of Justice at the top, by selecting Pam Bondi as Attorney General, as well as a range of lawyers and political agents who supported his false affirmation, he was deceived in 2020.
Three of his four highest officials were involved in Trump’s previous legal battles, including the New York Hush Money affair or the now silent federal accusation acts for trying to overthrow the 2020 results and to misunderstand classified documents: Deputy Prosecutor Todd Blanche, associate prosecutor General Stanley Woodward Jr. and the General solicitor John Sauer.
Another personal lawyer for Trump, Alina Habba, was appointed acting American lawyer in New Jersey and quickly announced a clear political investigation by his alleged “obstruction” of the president’s deportation efforts.
Technically, all are qualified. Bondi, for example, was elected twice as Florida Attorney General after being a local prosecutor. But from a moral and ethical point of view, they seem very questionable choices for a department whose declaration of value defines it as pursuing the law and the facts “without prejudice or incorrect influence”.
She pointed out this by approving the reception by Trump of a jumbo of Qatar, for whom she pressure.
By appointing Bondi, Trump said on Truth Social that “for too long, the supporting department of justice was armed against me and other Republicans – more.”
But it is a false representation of the Ministry of Justice of former President Joe Biden. His predecessor as a Attorney General, the former Federal Judge for Merrick Garland calls, was so determined to be independent of the White House that Biden’s political advisers complained to have delayed too long in the January 6, 2021 survey, Capitol Insurrection which sought to prevent the certification of the Congress of Biden’s victory in 2020.
Bondi quickly served lawyers who worked on cases against Trump, reduced the divisions that investigate tax violations and political corruption and began to transform the traditionally independent department into an arm of the White House prosecutor. (A first target: The Prosecutor General of New York Letitia James, who continued the real estate empire in New York. James seems to have been vulnerable to prosecution by making a false complaint on a mortgage form for a niece in Virginia.)
By crossing traditional borders, Trump ordered Bondi to consider pursuing two former civil servants of his Ministry of Internal Security, Christopher Krebs and Miles Taylor, for rejecting his false assertion that the 2020 elections were faked against him. He also ordered him to probe a better organization of democratic fundraising, Actblue, for having allegedly received illegal foreign contributions.
Remote wishes
Meanwhile, Martin’s mission at the head of a new working group on “armaments” indicates that the ministry could plan for prosecution to make the wishes of Trump’s campaign against his political enemies.
“Ed will ensure that we finally investigate the armament of our government under the Biden regime and that we did justice to his victims,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
As an American interim lawyer in Washington, Martin threatened the probes of several best Democrats, including the head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, and sent letters to three medical journals, asking how they ensured “competing points”.
Trump withdrew his appointment after the Senator of Gop Tom Tillis, showing an unusual republican resistance, burned the choice. But the selection of Pirro is hardly much better, although it has a prosecution experience.
During Trump’s first term, she urged the “cleaning” of the Ministry of Justice and the FBI, declaring that there are “individuals who should not only be dismissed, but who must be withdrawn in the handcuffs”. After the 2020 elections, Fox removed it from the air because his promotion of the false assertion Dominion Voting Machines fought the election against Trump was part of his defamation trial of $ 1.6 billion against Fox.
Pirro and Martin are not the only doubts in the department. The worst is perhaps the conservative California Harmeet Dhillon, an unsuccessful candidate in 2023 for the national republican president, whom he appointed to direct his division of civil rights.
It was created by the 1957 civil rights law to protect the rights of discriminated and deprived minorities. First, the department dismissed or transferred dozens of career voting lawyers and civil rights. Then, Dhillon completely upset his role, aligning his mission statements to match Trump priorities such as “put an end to radical indoctrination in kindergarten in the 12th year”, “keep men out of female sports” and “the eradication of anti-Christian prejudices”, according to the Washington Post.
“These are the President’s priorities,” she told his employees. “This is what we will focus on.” These priorities are mainly political and not legal. It is hardly the appropriate role of the ministry.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Dallas Morning News Washington office chief. © 2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
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