Even Trump's former lawyers say he's the 'greatest threat' to America's judicial system

Lawyers are notorious for disagreeing with each other on a wide range of issues, but a surprisingly large majority share one view — President Donald Trump’s behavior during his second term poses a grave threat to American law and order.

“At the lower-court level, judges have repeatedly ruled in ways intended to check Trump, most notably when it comes to violating civil and constitutional rights in pursuit of his indiscriminate immigration dragnet,” the Los Angeles Times’ political columnist Mark Z. Barabak wrote on Sunday. “The tendency to slow-walk his administration’s response to those rulings — and ignore others that Trump thinks he can safely snub — only contribute to the perception of presidential lawlessness and a sense that our judicial system is being strained to something approaching a breaking point.”

Pointing to “a new survey of legal experts — including federal judges, top-tier lawyers and scores of professors from some of the country’s leading law schools,” Barabak explained that the nonpartisan Bright Line Watch poll analyzed “21 federal judges, 113 lawyers, 193 law professors, 652 political scientists and a nationally representative sample of 2,750 Americans.” In the process, as Safeguarding Democracy Project director Rick Hasen told the Times, it became apparent that “across the ideological spectrum and across judges, lawyers and law professors, there was considerable agreement that the rule of law in the U.S. is under tremendous stress,” which poses “a real risk to democracy.”

Specifically legal experts pointed to the facts that Trump excessively uses executive power, that he has appointed Supreme Court judges (and pressured others) in ways that suggest they will not handle Trump-related cases impartially and how Trump has politicized law enforcement to prosecute his perceived enemies.

“Eight in 10 of those surveyed said federal officials fail to comply with court orders somewhat or very often, and nearly 9 in 10 said political appointees in Trump’s Justice Department mislead federal judges somewhat or very often,” Barabak added. “Talk about contempt of court — not to mention our vital system of checks and balances.”

Even lawyers who have worked closely with Trump warn about the threat he poses to the rule of law. Former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb, for example, recently told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Trump’s acting attorney general Todd Blanche has forfeited his integrity in order to do Trump’s bidding, most recently by being a “toady” in supporting Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund, which he described as “the culmination of [his] transformation from a once decent lawyer into the complete toady that he's become.”

“He's given up any character and integrity that he ever had,” Cobb explained to Burnett. “Lawyers who used to work with him and actually were optimistic that he would perform his duties consistent with the oath, no longer feel that way. It's never been apparent to me that he was worthy of that confidence, but he's shown that he will do anything that the president wants, including giving away $2 billion that belonged to the taxpayers in an effort to buy the attorney general permanent position.”

He added that, unlike the previous attorney general Pam Bondi, Blanche was never a member of Trump’s political cult of personality.

“He doesn't have her excuse. I mean, he's not an ideologue,” Cobb said. “He was not wedded to Trump. You know, for years and years … he didn't have the MAGA credentials of Pam Bondi. This is pure and unadulterated ambition. And somebody who, you know, for dollars and power has sold his soul.”