U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he attends a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., September 21, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
During former President Joe Biden's four years in the White House, the word "institutionalist" was often used to describe then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland — and it was meant in a good way. Garland had a reputation for valuing the rule of law above all else — even when it involved the president's son Hunter Biden, who didn't escape Garland's scrutiny. Joe Biden said he would respect the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) independence and not interfere with Garland's investigation of his son, although he gave Hunter Biden a preemptive pardon after Donald Trump won the United States' 2024 election.
In contrast, Garland's successor, Pam Bondi, is seldom described as an "institutionalist" but is often called a "Trump loyalist."
Attorney Paul Rosenzweig, in a biting article published on September 22, emphasizes that Bondi's top priority is serving Trump's wishes — not respecting "the rule of law" or DOJ's independence.
"In a Truth Social post on Saturday, (September 20)," explains Rosenzweig, who served in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under former President Barack Obama and is now a George Washington University law professor, "Donald Trump demanded that Bondi find a way to bring criminal indictments against some of his enemies, naming Letitia James (the New York attorney general), James Comey (the former FBI director), and Adam Schiff (a California senator), and declaring them 'all guilty as hell.' Urging quick action, Trump declared 'JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!' and later made clear to reporters that his direction was tantamount to an order: 'They have to act. They have to act fast.'"
The attorney continues, "Trump's imperious demand for criminal action came less than a day after he had forced the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, to resign. Siebert's error? Not acting fast enough, and apparently having doubts about the validity of the cases against Comey and James."
Bondi, Rosenzweig warns, "has received a royal command" from Trump and "will do her best to implement her ruler's direction."
"It is difficult — indeed, almost impossible — to express how utterly transgressive Trump's demands for personal justice are, how important the norms are that he is now violating, and how much destruction he is inflicting on the rule of law," Rosenzweig writes. "But let's try. To begin with, and to state the obvious, the likelihood that any of these three people has actually committed a federal crime is scant…. This is not the first time Trump has used the government's investigative power to punish his enemies. Recall that Trump has ordered the investigation of other disloyal opponents, including the cybersecurity expert Chris Krebs and the former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor."
Rosenzweig continues, "The difference now — and it is a categorical one that matters deeply — is that beyond ordering an investigation, Trump appears to be ordering unjustified indictments and prosecutions…. Second, and of equal concern, Trump's politicization of the Department of Justice runs counter to a norm of independence that goes back to the 1970s Watergate scandal…. Finally, Trump's order is, indirectly, evidence of the destruction of an even greater norm — bipartisan opposition to politicized justice."
Paul Rosenzweig's full article for The Atlantic is available at this link (subscription required).