Justice Department's Independence Under Fire

The Justice Department, a place that should be all about facts and the law, is facing some serious trouble. Just a month into the new administration, there have been some worrying moves. The department has been asking for the names of thousands of FBI agents who looked into the Capitol riot. They even sued a state attorney general who had won a big fraud case against Donald Trump before the 2024 election. And get this, they ordered the dismissal of a criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. They said the charges were getting in the way of Adams' ability to help with the administration's fight against illegal immigration. This isn't just any old scandal. It's causing a lot of chaos and testing the department's independence. People are starting to wonder if the president can bend the department to his will. The department has always been about facts, evidence, and the law. Now, it seems like politics are getting in the way. Top officials are resigning left and right. This includes Danielle Sassoon, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. She quit after being told to drop the case against Adams. She said the department was doing a "quid pro quo"—dropping the case to get Adams' help with Trump's immigration plans. Adams, a Democrat, had been working with the administration on immigration issues. This isn't the first time we've seen something like this. Back in 1973, there was the "Saturday Night Massacre" during the Nixon administration. Multiple Justice Department leaders quit rather than carry out President Richard Nixon’s orders to fire the Watergate special prosecutor. The department's purpose is to make sure laws are carried out and criminals are punished. But some people think that if you have a good relationship with the White House, you might not face consequences for doing something that ordinary Americans would be punished for. Bove, the acting No. 2 official, didn't say much about the legal merits of the case against Adams. He cited political reasons for dropping the case. He said the timing of the charges and the restrictions they placed on Adams' ability to fight illegal immigration and violent crime were issues. Bondi, the attorney general, defended the decision to drop the case. She said Adams was targeted because he criticized the Biden administration's immigration policies. Her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said prosecutors who refused the dismissal order have "no place at DOJ. " At the White House, Trump said he wasn't involved in the Adams case and knew nothing about it. But this isn't the only issue. There's also a dispute between Bove and the acting FBI leadership over a list of agents involved in the investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The request was seen by some as a precursor to possible mass firings, but it was also consistent with Trump’s fury over those criminal cases, which he erased with sweeping pardons soon after his inauguration. Bove referred to the acting FBI director’s resistance to his directive as an act of "insubordination" and said agents who "simply followed" orders would not lose their jobs but those who acted with "partisan intent" were at risk. Trump and his allies have been pushing the idea that the Justice Department had become "weaponized" against conservatives and him in particular. They cited separate indictments that were later dismissed after Trump won back the presidency in November. On her first day on the job, Bondi announced the creation of a "Weaponization Working Group, " to scrutinize the prosecutors who brought criminal and civil cases against Trump and to examine the Jan. 6 prosecutions. She wrote in a memo that the department "must take immediate and overdue steps to restore integrity and credibility" and to ensure that personnel were "ready and willing" to implement the president’s agenda. The group, notably, was not tasked with examining other politically sensitive matters more favorable to Trump, including a special counsel’s investigation of Democratic President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information or the prosecution of Biden’s son Hunter, who was convicted of gun and tax charges before receiving a pardon from his father in December. Among the prosecutors singled out by the working group was special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose civil fraud suit against Trump led to a nearly $500 million judgment. A frequent target of Trump’s ire, James would surface again days later when Bondi, in her first news conference, announced a lawsuit against the state of New York over a law that allows people who might not be in the U. S. legally to get a driver’s license. Bondi opened her remarks by saying she had "filed charges" against James and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, before later clarifying that she was referring to a lawsuit. More departures — and more turmoil — could be ahead. The prospect of the hollowing out of the Justice Department and the FBI is now a live and dangerous risk being played out.