Judges sound alarm over Justice Department 'controlled by the White House'

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon after his arraignment in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., February 13, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said that the Justice Department is in trouble again.

The judge overseeing the case involving journalists, including ex-CNN host Don Lemon, is demanding that the DOJ turn over its presentation to the grand jury that resulted in the indictments. It's an unusual move, but it's happening more often.

"I think that you have judges, and particularly this one and others, who are very concerned about a Justice Department that may not be doing justice. There's been — and it hasn't been a secret, right? An indication of whether we have a Justice Department that's being controlled by the White House," Jackson said.

He explained that in administrations past, the DOJ may share policy with the White House, but it remains independent and makes decisions on prosecutions based on evidence, not demands from the president.

"We know about James Comey, right? We know about going after him, political enemy. We know about Letitia James, going after her. Why is that relevant to this discussion? Because I think there may be a feeling amongst the judiciary based upon this and other cases. Is this proper legal protocol? Did you do it right? Did you call balls and strikes?" Jackson asked.

Grand juries, he said, operate as "judge, jury and executioner" in these cases and there is no defense made. "And the grand jury has to find that it's legally — the facts, raise it to a legally sufficient level to indict." It is all controlled by the Justice Department. It's one of the reasons that legal analysts joke that a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich.

"So, you could instruct the grand jury however you wish. You can give facts to the grand jury, which you do through witnesses, but you legally instruct them. This judge is making sure that all of that was done properly with regard to the first indictment and what we call the superseding indictment thereafter," said Jackson.

If the judge reviews the grand jury information and finds any improprieties, the case could get dismissed. The most recent example includes the Broadview Six case, in which local activists and leaders were indicted after inappropriate moves by the U.S. Attorney's Office in that case. There's another question about what the DOJ told a Washington D.C. grand jury about Olympian David Hearn, who was falsely accused of ripping up the lining of the Abraham Lincoln Reflecting Pool. The lawyer in that case wants to know if the grand jury was lied to.

Another issue, Jackson mentioned, is that the DOJ went to two judges asking for a search warrant for the journalists, and those judges refused. So, the DOJ bypassed the judges and went straight to the grand jury instead.

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