President Donald Trump is appointing unqualified prosecutors simply because they are politically loyal — and that is going to be “dangerous,” warned a legal expert.
“The president has long expressed bitterness that his first attorney general, Jefferson Sessions III, recused himself from the investigation of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election, after which Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, named Robert S. Mueller III to lead the probe,” wrote legal expert Jeffrey Toobin for The New York Times on Monday. “Determined in his second term to avoid any such displays of independence and integrity by his subordinates, Mr. Trump stocked the Justice Department with former courtiers, including Attorney General Pam Bondi (since fired), Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (since named acting A.G.) and Solicitor General D. John Sauer (unchanged).”
Toobin went on to describe various Trump prosecutorial appointees as inexperienced, unethical or both. Darin Smith, who Trump appointed as chief federal prosecutor in Wyoming and already serves as US attorney, participated in the January 6th coup attempt (although he says he never entered the Capitol) and as state senator supported legislation to eliminate gun-free zones in buildings and bar state employees from implementing federal firearms laws. He has never tried a case in federal or state courts.
Similarly, Toobin noted that Philip Williams Jr, who Trump nominated to be US attorney in the Northern District of Alabama, has falsely claimed that January 6th rioters were “hunted down” and accused the prosecutors of “abuse,” and has likewise never tried a criminal case. He did, however, host a multi-hour talk show that advertised itself as “Solid Conservative and Just Plain Right.” Meanwhile Dan Bishop, who Trump nominated as US attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, voted to overturn the 2020 election results and falsely claimed “the left” orchestrated the January 6th coup attempt.
Finally Toobin singled out Joseph diGenova, “an 81-year-old Reagan-era U.S. attorney in Washington, to replace Ms. Medetis Long and take over the investigation” into former CIA Director John O. Brennan, who Trump has prosecuted on murky and spurious charges as vengeance for Brennan for criticizing Trump. Long, the original prosecutor, resigned because she said there were no legitimate grounds for prosecuting Brennan.
“I know of no legitimate case against Mr. Brennan — as Mr. Trump’s first Justice Department already demonstrated,” Toobin wrote. “At that time, the president ordered up a nearly identical investigation of Mr. Brennan and the origins of the Russia probe, that one led by John Durham, and it came up empty. It appears that the current Florida investigation has also found nothing, since Maria Medetis Long, a career prosecutor in the South Florida U.S. attorney’s office, recently left the investigation, reportedly over her belief there was not enough to make a case.”
He added, “Mr. Trump’s Justice Department responded by doubling down on the pursuit of Mr. Brennan. The president’s enablers summoned Joseph diGenova,. It’s not clear precisely how Mr. diGenova will direct the probe, but there’s no doubt that his assignment is to produce Mr. Brennan’s scalp. Even if the investigation of Mr. Brennan ends without criminal charges, as it would in a just world, or in an acquittal, which would be a second-best result, the cost to him and his family — in legal fees, harm to his good name and stress — will be enormous.”
Toobin is not alone in pointing out that Trump keeps nominating unqualified prosecutors to pursue spurious legal cases. Federal prosecutor and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro dropped his criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell after acknowledging that there was no criminal case, with MS NOW’s Steve Benen observing that this continues Trump’s “losing streak” going after his political opponents.
"To be sure, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., didn't want to drop the case," Benen said. "Two weeks ago, two prosecutors from Pirro's office showed up without invitation or advance notice at Federal Reserve headquarters seeking a tour of the construction site. A week later, the former Fox News host said she would forge ahead with a case against Powell. Pirro was, however, quickly overwhelmed by reality."
Despite these setbacks, Trump remains undeterred. After firing Attorney General Pam Bondi for failing to succeed in taking out political enemies, interim attorney general Todd Blanche announced he would prioritize Trump’s political vengeance cases. Instead of acknowledging the cases were illegitimate, Blanche instead blamed Bondi.
“He’s attempting to show that with Pam Bondi gone, things are going to start happening. And that’s a lowlife tactic,” Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is friends with Trump, told The Guardian earlier this month. “Pam Bondi is not here to defend herself and he’s basically casting an aspersions against her.”
