Former White House counsel: Trump will make DOJ his own 'personal' law firm

09 January

Since winning the United States' 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has made a point of picking ultra-MAGA loyalists for his incoming second administration — including his choices for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Trump's DOJ picks include former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for U.S. attorney general and conspiracy theorist/QAnon sympathizer Kash Patel for FBI director. The president-elect chose Bondi after the far-right MAGA Republican he originally had in mind, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), withdrew from consideration.

Bob Bauer, a New York university law professor and one-time White House counsel to former President Barack Obama, is highly critical of Trump's DOJ picks in an article published by The Atlantic on January 9. The president-elect, Bauer warns, is trying to turn the DOJ into his own personal law firm and is threatening its independence in the process.

"Some post-Watergate presidents have chosen judges or lawyers with extensive department or law-enforcement experience to serve as attorney general," Bauer explains. "Others have selected those with whom they've had a personal or political connection. A number of presidents appointed AGs from the senior ranks of their political campaign's advisers, including their campaign managers. But Trump has set himself apart from even these predecessors, viewing the Department of Justice in the most personal of terms as his own."

Bauer continues, "He has not bought into the goal of a quasi-independent DOJ. He has openly questioned why he should not have complete control over the department. This is, he proclaims, his 'absolute right.' He expects 'loyalty' from his staff and appointments, the DOJ included, and the loyalty he apparently has in mind is the unhampered variety modeled by his personal counsel of many years, Roy Cohn."

The legal scholar notes that Trump "reportedly raged at" his first attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), after he "recused himself from all matters involving the (2016) campaign, including the investigation into Russian ties." What Sessions saw as a matter of legal ethics, Bauer recalls, was a "personal betrayal" to Trump.

"Trump’s intent to nominate multiple members of his personal legal team — lawyers whose loyalty has been tested in attorney-client relationships of keenest importance to the client — indicates that he is looking to seal in the personal protection he was denied in his prior term," Bauer warns. "In recognizing the danger here, it is not necessary to minimize or dismiss the professional qualities and accomplishments of all the lawyers he has chosen. Some, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, have criminal law-enforcement experience. The nominee for solicitor general. D. John Sauer, has had clerkships and other experiences shared by many leading appellate advocates."

Bauer continues, "But, if confirmed, these lawyers would come to their positions on the basis of their close and recent service to the president-elect as his personal counsel. And these officials may be working under Pam Bondi, who also participated in the president’s personal legal defense in his first term."

Bob Bauer's full article for The Atlantic is at this link (subscription required).

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